


Cosmic Pandemonium

by Hyperionova



Series: PRODIGIALIS [3]
Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Fantasy, M/M, Mutant Powers, Mutants, Original Character(s), Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-06
Updated: 2018-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-29 10:39:04
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 40,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8486176
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyperionova/pseuds/Hyperionova
Summary: Almost 6 months fly by and the hole in Sehun's heart keeps growing wider and deeper like an endless abyss, each time only filled with more agony. Deciding to drop out of FLAC, Sehun is determined to tear the world apart to look for Kai, the man who has left an indescribable hollowness and a macabre darkness in his heart. Following the misfortune that has struck Shixun, everyone forsakes Kai, except Kris, Xiomara and Sehun. Though Sehun is close to giving up on Kai, in the hope of finding Kai again, he sets off on a journey with Kris and Xiomara to find Kai again. With the aid of Kris' childhood friend, who is an amateur Flairer in Unikinesis (Cosmic Empowerment and Circadian Manipulation) with the ability to manipulate universes and dimensions, they are ready to face a war they might not win.





	1. Foreword

* * *

 

 

**_SEHUN_ **

On the verge of giving up after having dropped out of FLAC, he picks himself up again. Having lost full control of his Flairs and with a morbid blackness spreading over his heart, all that's left to do for him is to find the man who caused it all. Torn between love and hopelessness, he is hell-bent on helping Kai. Losing Kai for the second time is not an option. They are, after all, each other's destiny. However, during his attempt to get Kai back, he is met with new suitors, friends who suddenly want his attention.

 

 

 

_**KRIS** _

Losing Shixun is possibly the cruelest thing that could happen to him. He isn't ready to lose another loved one. When Sehun decides to leave to look for his brother, he is not about to let Sehun go on his own for two reasons: 1) He wants to find Kai, too; 2) He knows Sehun will get hurt considering how unstable he is at the moment.

 

 

 

_**KAI** _

Close to losing himself, he struggles and he fights with everything he has. At times where he is suffocating, trapped, unable to defeat the entity possessing his body, the memories of Sehun are the only incentives for him to keep sane. The only way he can triumph over Arthur's soul is by letting himself be taken over by his darker persona and if he does, he knows he will never be able to redeem himself.

 

 

 

Other Characters:

_**Xiomara—**_ Sehun's cousin, who joins Sehun in his search for Kai.

 _ **Jayce—**_ An inexperienced Unikinetic Flairer.

 _ **Jaehan—**_ An adept Locator, who agrees to help Sehun and the others to locate Kai.

 _ **Lucas—**_ A Flair wielder, who is a friend of Amber's.

 _ **Amber—**_ The daugher of the head of the Snatchers of Gawlreng.

_**Chanyeol** _

_**Baekhyun** _

_**Faiion** _

_**Grace** _

_**Allis** _

_**Yixing** _

_**Donghae** _

_**Jungkook** _

_**Mark** _

_**Gwenna** _

_**Arthur** _

_**Shixun** _


	2. PROLOGUE

The descend of the silence is followed by an overcast, blocking out every ray of the sun. It is a macabre spring evening. The clock strikes three as though on cue, but he could not avert his gaze from the window or the sky, which is awash with a cacophony of shades of grey. Its clouds are thick, dark and full of tears to shed. The revulsion has not ebbed no matter how many days or weeks pass. Along with the raw, cold darkness, numbness continues to spread over his mind and heart.

“Enough, honey,” a hand slithers over his shoulder and Sehun turns his head to face his mother. Grace pins him with a pitiful look, the same look she has been giving Sehun since… since…

Sehun sighs and returns his gaze to the window. “I can’t stop,” he mutters, eyeing the darkening sky. He lowers his hand from the window and closes his eyes for a moment, sucking in a breath. “I… don’t know how to.”

Grace’s arm gathers him close to her and she presses her lips to the top of his head. “It’s okay. It will be okay.” She withdraws and gently cups a side of Sehun’s face. “You will figure this out, sweetheart. And I will help you in whatever way I can. All of us will.”

Sehun nods curtly and flumps on the edge of his bed. He looks to the empty space in his room, which was once occupied by Shixun’s bed. He has not spent much time in this room when the other bed was still here, but these days, he rarely steps out of this room.

“Why does it… hurt so much, Mom?” Sehun breathes out with a sob chocking his throat. “I… I wasn’t even a good brother… I didn’t even know him as well as I should have.”

“Oh, Sehun,” Grace lets out, taking her seat on the bed and drapes an arm over Sehun’s shoulders for Sehun to lean on her shoulder. “You and Shixun share… _shared_ a… a bond that can’t really be explained with plain words. Once the bond is forged, it should not be broken. You both had a lot of trouble controlling your Flairs until the bond was concatenated for life. Your chains were supposed to hold that link. And well, when Shixun was…” she trails off for a moment and swallows hard. “And your chain was…” she sucks in a shaky breath. “It was all broken all at once with nothing for you to hold onto. And believe me… That bond isn’t the only thing that was involved.”

“But you… you didn’t feel this when Aunt Gwenna died, did you?”

“I didn’t share such a bond with her, Sehun. But the pain of losing her was all the same. Listen,” she takes hold of Sehun’s hand. “I know it feels like you cannot control your Flairs.”

“I can’t even control my breathing, Mom.”

“It will get better. With time. With lots of, lots of time. And until we find some sort of solution to stabilize your Flairs, you will have to fight for yourself, Sehun. You must _try_.”

Sehun straightens up and buries his face in his palms as his mother strokes his back.

“Perhaps you should think about going back to FLAC. It might be a good distraction.”

Sehun shakes his head. “I’m not going back to school, Mom.”

“You’ll have to sometime soon, Sehun.”

“No. If I’m a burden for you here, then I’ll leave.”

“Don’t be absurd,” she chides him. “I just think you shouldn’t have dropped out of school.”

Sehun falls mum for a moment. Then when the moment has passed, he asks, “Any news on… Kai?” even the name leaves a bad taste on Sehun’s tongue and the way Grace flinches, before her complexion turns grey makes, Sehun sick.

“No, Sehun,” she sighs. Sehun knows his parents have not even talked to Dillan and her family, save Kris, out of grief and anguish. “Donghae tries every day to locate… him, but he could not teleport himself to Kai. Allis says she cannot access the Darkness Dimension to find Kai because he is blocking her out of it as well. We really are helpless, Sehun. The Ministry has delegates looking for him, too. We are doing everything that we can.”

“It wasn’t his fault, Mom. Kai would not have… killed Shixun,” Sehun says, but his stomach clenches. He might try to convince himself so, but it is Kai’s fault. Kai killed Shixun. Kai ran away when he could have stayed. Kai did not try hard enough. Kai did not let Sehun help him. Kai left. Kai caused this. Kai. Kai did it. It is nobody’s fault, but Kai’s.

“We all want to believe that, Sehun,” Grace sighs. “But when you think about it, it was his true self that…” she stops herself when she notices Sehun’s bleary eyes. She then lets out a heavy breath and cards her fingers through Sehun’s hair. “We’ll look for him. But maybe… we should just give up.”

“No!”

“Sehun, it’s been six months,” she says calmly. “We’ll try, Sehun. But until he lets us find him, we won’t find him. And you know that, too.” She rises to her feet. “Come down and have something to eat.”

“Yeah, okay,” he mutters, gripping the bedframe.

Grace stops by the door and looks back to him with a lifeless smile. “Happy birthday, Sehun.”

 

* * *

 

No one at the table speaks. His father silently slices through the meat as Grace takes slow sips of her wine. Xiomara is absorbed into her phone. Grace thought it would be a nice change to have her over for the weekend, but Sehun is not sure it had made any difference at all. A year ago, on this very day, Sehun had altered Grace’s destiny, he had left the life he had known behind. He did it in hopes to make everything right, everything better. Nothing is right, nothing is better now.

“So, Xi,” Faiion breaks the silence. Sehun takes a bite of the sweet potato and finds it hard to swallow it. “How do you find FLAC thus far?”

Xiomara shrugs. She and Jungkook had joined FLAC earlier this year. “It’s decent, I guess. I mean, it has only been a handful of months. So, I’m still getting used to having so many headstrong brats around me.”

Grace and Faiion smile momentarily. “I hope the environment is not too harsh on you,” says Faiion.

“Not at all, Uncle Faiion,” she smirks. “Thanks for having me for weekend, by the way.”

“Oh, no thanks necessary. We were the ones who asked you for a favour.”

The doorbell rings out of the blue and everyone freezes for a moment. “Are we expecting anyone?” Grace asks her husband with a pair of arched eyebrows.

“I am most certainly not.”

“I’ll get it,” Sehun offers before his mother could rise from her seat. It would be better to excuse himself than to spend another torturous moment in the vast dining room with them. When he opens the door, his eyes almost pop out of their sockets. “Kris?”

Kris’ pursed lips try to stretch into a smile, but Sehun doubts he has smiled sincerely in a while as well. “Happy birthday,” he says, handing Sehun a small red box. “It’s a watch.”

“Thanks for ruining the surprise,” Sehun scoffs and accepts the box before he makes way for Kris to enter. “What are you doing here?”

Kris pulls his coat off and settles it on the coat hanger before facing Sehun. “Well, it’s your birthday.”

“Oh,” Sehun scrutinizes the red velvet-skin of the box and licks his lips. “Thanks, Kris. But you didn’t have to… We’re not celebrating.”

“I know,” he sighs. “I just… I wanted to be here. It’s… _his_ birthday, too, you know.”

Sehun nods, keeping his head low. “I understand.”

“Kris,” Grace gasps as she walks into the hallway. “Oh, it has been a while,” she exhales, pulling Kris into a brief embrace. “You have been missed.”

“Missed you just as much, Grace,” Kris says.

“Xiomara is here, too. Would you want to join us for dinner?”

“I have no other plans for the night. I’d love to.”

“That’s great. Then, you don’t have to drive all the way back home. Spend the night.”

Sehun keeps his eyes on the box for a long moment, though his mind is completely numb.

“Sehun?” Kris calls, snapping him out of the blankness. “You coming?”

“Yeah.” He leaves the box on the sideboard before he proceeds to the dining room.

 

* * *

 

The darkness every time he closes his eyes supplies him with nothing but woe and suffocation. Everything is so vivid in the darkness, but at the same time, _nothing_ is real. He has been to the Darkness Dimension. He has been there, and he has seen the horrors of it. A part of that had latched itself on him and now every time he tries to sleep, he is hammered by nothing but nightmares. Horrible, inescapable nightmares.

Sehun does not close his eyes tonight. He stares at the ceiling relentlessly with a million thoughts swarming his mind. What is _his_ destiny? Would any of this have happened should his destiny follow a different path? Would his brother still be alive if Kai had not been his destiny? Is Kai even his destiny? Are they even soulmates? Nonsense. It is all but nonsense. All of it. Sehun releases and clenches his fists again. How much longer would he have to tolerate this void of _nothingness_?

Kai is out there. He is still out there. Would he have given up on Sehun should Sehun have been in his shoes? Sehun is not trying hard enough. No one is. No one wants to. Kai has killed Shixun and there is no argument there. Even though Sehun knows there is a big chance Kai was overtaken by his dark persona when he attacked them, Grace had a point. Dark persona or not, it was Kai. Brooding over this would not help anyone. Sehun would not get his answers or solutions until he has found Kai.

He gets off the bed and turns the bedside lamp on. His hands tremble a little as he makes his way to the bathroom. Stepping out of his clothes, he takes a quick, but cold shower. He dries himself off and stands before the mirror. He hasn’t had a haircut in months. His hair has reached his shoulders. He fishes out the scissors from the shelf and chops his hair off. Then he grabs and turns the electric razor on to trim the back and sides of his head. Somewhat satisfied with the half-assed haircut, he washes the hair off his body again before he steps out of the bathroom and pulls on a pair of jeans.

His heart sinks when he enters the closet and finds Shixun’s clothes. He pulls out one of Shixun’s t-shirts and his red hoodie. Once he is fully dressed, he pulls on a pair of red sneakers and grabs a backpack before stuffing it with extra clothes. He finds Shixun’s concatenation chain in one of the drawers and he pockets it as well. Then grabbing his phone and wallet, he storms out of the room.

He almost makes it to the porch without alerting anyone, but he stops on the doorstep when he finds Kris perched on the steps, dragging long puffs of a cigarette and huffing out clouds of smoke. He turns his head around and cocks and eyebrow at Sehun before he jolts up to his feet and flicks the cigarette off. “Going somewhere at this hour?” he asks, looking truly confused.

Sehun swallows. “You smoke now?”

Kris eyes the backpack slung over Sehun’s shoulder. “Where are you going?”

“I asked you a question, too.”

“Yes, Sehun, I smoke now. Where are you going?!”

“Shh,” Sehun hisses. “I’m leaving.”

“Obviously. But where to?”

Sehun clenches his jaw. “To look for Kai. Happy? Now, keep your mouth zipped until I’m out of here, then you can scream.” He shoves past Kris, who stops him by grabbing his wrist.

“Are you barking mad?!”

“No, I’m not!” Sehun grunts, pulling his wrist free. “But I will be if I stayed put for another moment! I have to go, Kris.”

“You think I don’t care about him?”

“He killed your boyfriend.”

“He is my brother!” Kris growls. “And I fucking don’t believe he would do something like that and I know you don’t either!”

“Then, why are you not doing anything, Kris?” Sehun asks miserably.

Kris locks his jaw and scowls hard. “What can I do, Sehun?”

“You’re a bloody Recherché. One of the strongest ones. And you’re his brother. So, come up with a better excuse, Kris.”

Kris clamps his eyes shut for a moment, then lets out an exasperated breath. “I don’t have the strength to face him, Sehun.”

“Imagine how I’d feel, Kris. I was right there when it happened. He ruined me. He completely destroyed me. He broke my heart, he broke my will, he took everything away from me and left nothing but this hollowness. And I still don’t want to give up on him, Kris.”

“But going after him like this when you don’t even have control over your Flair is stupid, Sehun.”

“Fine,” he spits and turns on his heel to leave, but Kris grabs his arm.

“You’re not going to listen to me, are you?”

“I’m not going to listen to anyone.”

Kris heaves a sigh. “All right. Then, let me go with you.”

“What?”

“I said I’m going with you.”

Sehun blinks at him. “You… don’t have to.”

“I want to.”

The door springs open in a frenzy and both Sehun and Kris go stiff, gaping at Xiomara who bursts out, shutting the door behind her. “Great. Let’s go,” she says, shoving Kris’ coat and car keys against his chest as she struts past them.

“Whoa,” Kris stops her. “Where do you think _you’re_ going?”

“Look. Don’t even bother to argue. I’m going with you two. It’s Kai we’re talking about. And I’m not going sit back and watch you two idiots go look for him alone. So, chop-chop,” she slaps Sehun in the butt before she starts toward Kris’ car parked in the driveway.

“Xiomara!” Sehun calls out.

“Do you even have any idea of where to start?!” she asks, cocking an eyebrow.

“You’re not going with us,” Kris says firmly.

Xiomara crosses her arms over her chest. “Just because I’m in high-heels, it doesn’t mean I can’t kick butt. I can kick butt better than you two. But firstly. The Locator.” She says, sticking her forefinger out and twirls around to proceed to the car.

“Wait, what Locator?” Kris inquires, following her.

“The one Shixun dated. From Gawlreng.”

“Jaehan?”

“Yes. He’s the best in business I’ve heard.”

“No one can locate Kai.”

“We don’t have to locate where Kai is _right now_. He can locate where he _was_. I’m sure Kai would have left some breadcrumbs behind for us to follow.”

Kris stops to contemplate the suggestion for a moment before he glances back to Sehun.

“What are you waiting for?” she groans upon reaching the car. Sehun scratches the back of his head and wends his way to them.


	3. Something to Hope For

_“Because it’s less hurtful that way… and I would still have something to hope for. Soulmates will always find their way to one another no matter which reality they’re in, no matter which universe, world. I know this sounds like bullshit and trust me, I feel like a moron for saying this. But maybe it isn’t so moronic. Something to hope for…”_

_Sehun does not find it moronic. Especially not when Kai, the most practical of all, says it. He lifts his head from Kai’s chest and runs a hand through Kai’s mussed hair. “Something to hope for… I like the sound of that,” he says with a smile and it is a wonderful sight to see Kai smile back._

_The morning light surges into the room through the open balcony door as the white curtains sway along with the soft breeze. An even more beautiful sight is Kai’s lovely eyes. They usually reflect the misery Kai faces within, but today, they are brimming with nothing short of love. Sehun could die this way. With Kai looking at him like he is the most precious thing in this world._

_Sehun leans in and presses a kiss to Kai’s smiling lips. Kai tightens his arm around Sehun to hold him close as they curl together under the duvet, their naked and spent bodies heating up simultaneously. Kai kisses him harder until Sehun’s lips were throbbing against his._

_“Do you think you want to get married, Sehun? Not now, but when we’re older,” Kai asks, tongue still teasing Sehun’s lower lip._

_Sehun’s heart skips a beat. “K-Kai… You can’t just… say stuff like that.”_

_“Well, yes, I can. Because I do. I want to. Marriage, kids. Grow old with you.”_

_“You bastard never get old, though.”_

_“I will eventually have to, Sehun.”_

_Sehun grins and attacks Kai with another passionate kiss._

_“Why don’t you love me as much as I love you, Sehun?” Kai asks when they break apart. Sehun stares at him in confusion._

_“What?”_

_Kai props himself up on his elbows and gently caresses Sehun’s cheek with the back of his fingers. “You never did and you never will.” His voice is so soft, it almost sounds threatening._

_Sehun sits up. “Kai… I… I don’t understand. Why are you saying this out of the sudden? And where did you get such an idea from? I love you.”_

_“I want to believe that. But I don’t, Sehun,” he plants a kiss to Sehun’s neck and drags his lips up to Sehun’s cheek, which he fills with soft, maddening kisses. His runs a hand up and down the side of Sehun’s waist, lowering his kisses to the crook of Sehun’s neck._

_“Kai…” Sehun grunts, gripping Kai’s shoulder to push him back. “Kai… wait. What do you mean?”_

_Kai continues to forcefully kiss his neck, dragging the tip of his tongue along Sehun’s collarbone. “You let me go. I never would have let you go. I would have held your hand and I would have given my life to protect yours.” He shoves Sehun back until the latter is pinned to the bed. Kai then presses him down, clasping Sehun’s hands. “I promise to love you. And it’s not fair,” he says, staring into Sehun’s wide eyes. “I love you more than I love myself, but you can never love me as much, can you?”_

_Sehun could not break free from Kai’s grip. “Kai, stop this. I do love you and I will never give up on you.”_

_Kai smirks and bows his head to kiss all over Sehun’s chest. His grip around Sehun’s wrist tightens and Sehun’s heart begins to pound in his throat. “You did give up on me, didn’t you?”_

_“No! Kai, please,” he begs as Kai pulls his hot mouth all over Sehun’s chest. “Kai… Kai!”_

_Kai lifts his head and all the air gets knocked out of Sehun’s lungs when he sees Kai’s eyes, which have turned completely black and sinister. “You ruined me, Sehun.”_

_\---_

Sehun is jerked awake by the screeching noise of the tyres when the car comes to a sudden stop. He blinks his eyes furiously to clear his vision and squints at the sunlight that blinds him momentarily.

“Sorry,” Kris mutters and only then does it dawn on Sehun that he is still in the car with Kris and Xiomara, on their way to Gawlreng. But the sun has come up and Sehun has no idea when he had dozed off. He rubs his eyes on the hilt of his palms and looks ahead. Kris has stopped at a junction before he pulls the car over to the gas station. “I thought we’d fill up and get something to eat.”

Sehun, still a little dazed, tries to comprehend Kris’ words. “Yeah…”

“You okay?” Kris asks, eyes puffy and tired.

“You should get some sleep, too.”

“I’m fine,” he turns the engine off. “Gawlreng is not that far from here.”

Sehun turns his head around and finds Xiomara curled up in the backseat, sleeping soundly. “We shouldn’t have let her come,” he sighs under his breath as Kris opens the car door.

“She’s a big girl, to be honest. And she has gone through more stuff than we did at her age,” he shrugs and checks if his wallet is in his pocket before he steps out of the car.

Sehun clenches his eyes and draws in some breaths to calm his nerves. He then glances out the window. Kris is standing in the convenience store of the old filling station, grabbing some junk food. Sehun leans his head back against the headrest and tries his best to not to think about the nightmare.

He stares at his palms on his lap for a moment. The more he tries to silence his thoughts, the more they devour him from within. The more he seeks the light, the more the darkness claims him. The misery. He can’t run away from it. A part of him is ripped away and another part of him is tossed into the darkness.

Is it so wrong to love someone this much? Why is he being punished for loving Kai?

Kris returns with a bag full of junk food and water bottles. “Your phone’s been buzzing since the crack of dawn or something,” he says before he starts filling the car up with fuel.

“Oh,” Sehun sets the bag aside and checks his phone. His parents have left him several missed calls and messages. He sighs and replies to one of their texts, demanding where he has gone to.

**I’m fine. I’m with Kris and Xiomara. I will call you when I’m ready to come home again. Don’t worry about me. Just don’t cancel my card. I still need to eat. Thanks, mom, dad.**

Kris is back in the car by the time Sehun sends the message. “All cool?”

“Yeah,” he exhales heavily. “It’s just Mom. Do you have a charger?”

Kris nods as he opens a can of cola. “In the dashboard.”

“Thanks.”

Kris places the can in the cup holder and looks back to Xiomara, biting his lower lip. He then extends one of his long arms and slaps Xiomara on her thigh. “Oi!”

Xiomara wakes up with a groan and scowls at him. “What? We’re there already?” she asks in a husky voice.

“No. But if you want to pee or something, now would be your last chance.”

Xiomara jolts upright at once and she looks around the gas station. “It looks… dirty.”

“So?”

She scowls harder at Kris. “Girls can’t just point our stiffy anywhere we like and pee like you dirty boys who have no regard for cleanliness.”

“It’s either this or a bladder explosion. Your pick. But I’ll throw you out of the car if you dirtied my car.”

Xiomara hisses out a curse and hurries out of the car.

“Did she just insult our entire gender based on the way we piss?” Sehun asks, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m more offended she called our penises stiffy,” Kris snorts and starts the engine. Silence hangs between them again. Kris slumps back against the seat after fastening the seatbelt and closes his eyes. Sehun reaches for his shoulder and Kris’ eyes fling open again.

“Kris—”

“I’m fine, Sehun. Trust me,” he says gruffly.

“No, I know. But… I just want to thank you. For helping.” Sehun’s hand slips down Kris’ arm and he clasps Kris’ hand resting on the gear stick. Kris straightens up and stares at him expressionlessly. “Thank you for being here.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to let you do something stupid and get killed alone,” he breathes out heavily. Sehun does not expect Kris to turn his hand around and hold Sehun’s hand, intertwining their fingers. “I already lost two people I cared the most for.”

Sehun keeps looking into Kris’ eyes for a moment and when he realizes they resemble Kai’s eyes, he retrieves his hand from Kris and averts his gaze. “He loved you, you know. A lot. More than you probably know,” he mutters.

“Don’t, Sehun. I don’t need this… comfort. I’ve already had enough of it from everyone.”

“No,” Sehun turns to face Kris properly. “The last thing Shixun talked about before… before it happened was you.”

Kris’ eyes widen. “What… what did he… say?”

Sehun smiles miserably. “He said… he missed you. He was crying at the ball and he told me that he missed you.”

Kris only stares at Sehun for a few seconds before he palms his forehead and bangs his head back against the headrest. “I’m a fucking idiot. I’m the biggest asshole in this entire goddamn universe.” He grips his hair as tears collect in the corner of his eyes. “I made him miserable. I… I was so unfair to him. I hurt him. What the fuck was wrong with me? How could a sane person ever think of hurting someone they love?!”

“Kris, hey. Kris…” Sehun lets out, grabbing hold of Kris’ hand. “Yes, things didn’t turn out the way any of us wanted, but… you did make him happy, Kris. Sometimes, I feel like you were the only one that made him happy.”

Kris furiously blinks the tears away. “And I cheated on him.”

Sehun lets out a loud breath and pulls his hand back. “I’m sorry.”

Xiomara jumps back into the car with a hand full of toilet paper. “What did you get?” she asks, snatching the bag of food from Sehun and leans forward to grab Kris’ cola can. She takes a swig from the can and replaces it back into the cup holder. “What’s with you two?”

Neither Sehun nor Kris answers.

Xiomara scoffs, “You’re like a bunch of old men. Grumpy all the time.”

“Well, his brother and my boyfriend died, Xi. You can imagine why we’re not all happy-clappy,” Kris harrumphs, shifting the gear to pull the car out of the gas station.

“Yeah, I get that, Kris. My mother died, too, remember?”

Kris goes silent.

Sehun runs a hand through his hair and pulls his hoodie off. “Xi is right.”

“See!” Xiomara yelps. “Wait. About what?”

“We can’t let this grief cloud our focus,” he says.

“We can let this grief turn into determination,” Xiomara adds. Kris catches his lower lip between his teeth and worries it for a moment.

“So, we’re going to meet up with Jaehan, first and foremost. And then, we’ll see where we can go from there.”

“And if we have nowhere to go?” Kris asks.

Sehun licks his lips. “I don’t know. I’m not going to give up, though.”

 

* * *

 

 

When Jaehan’s apartment door is opened by a little boy, Sehun, Kris and Xiomara exchange a look among themselves. “Hi,” Kris says grumpily and the boy instantly slams the door shut.

Xiomara shakes her head, rolling her head. “Let me,” she knocks on the door again. After a moment, the little boy opens the door. He could barely reach the doorknob. “Hello there,” Xiomara says in a soft voice and bends down. “I’m Xiomara. Is… Jaehan home?”

The boy is almost hiding behind the door and he keeps staring at Kris with horrified eyes. “N-no,” he says in a squeaky voice.

“Oh. Does he not live here?”

The boy nods his head. “Papa does… live here.”

“Ter, who are you talking to?” a woman appears behind the boy and her eyes pop out when she sees the group. She lifts the boy up into her arms and frowns at them. “Who are you?”

“We’re looking for Jaehan,” Sehun says. “We’re his friends.”

“Uh… He’s not home now. I don’t really know where he has gone to.”

“Are you his… wife?” Kris asks. He looks unbelievably angry.

The woman looks surprised. “No, I’m not. I’m just his son’s caretaker.”

Kris groans and turns his back to the rest, gripping the back of his neck. “He has a kid. Bloody asshole,” Sehun hears him hiss under his breath.

“I’m sorry, I can’t help you. He’s probably somewhere in the town. I’m not sure. I can call him if you want,” the woman offers.

“That would be great. Thank you,” Sehun says and the woman closes the door. “Kris,” he calls and Kris faces him with a merciless glare.

“Did Shixun know this?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does!”

“No, it doesn’t,” Xiomara says instead. “Cute kid, though.”

“You’re not making this any better,” Kris snarls at her and Xiomara smirks.

“What? It’s not like the kid is Jaehan and Shixun’s. What are you getting all riled up for?

“I swear to god—”

“Enough with this unnecessary nonsense,” Sehun breaks their argument. “Jaehan’s kid is his business, Kris. Shixun never even really liked Jaehan, so it really does not matter, okay? Let it go.”

The door opens again and it is just the woman this time. She looks disappointed. “He isn’t answering.”

Sehun sighs and gives her his name and number. “Can you ask him to call me as soon as he’s back?”

“Sure.”

“Thank you.”

They hurry back down the apartment building and under the scorching sun, Sehun feels like spring has just melted into summer. Gawlreng has always been a little hotter than anywhere else. He wonders if he should pay Amber a visit. Well, he would have if they knew each other like in the other fate.

“What now?” Kris asks, rubbing his chin.

“You’re slaphappy,” Sehun informs him.

“I’m _what_?” he looks offended.

“No. You’re sleepy. You’re being reckless. Thus, the irritation and anger.”

“Yeah, you do sound extra bitchy,” Xiomara says, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kris lets out a heavy breath. “I’m sorry.”

Xiomara shrugs and gives Kris a brief hug around the waist. “It’s okay. I like having someone to bicker with.”

“You’re strange, do you know that? Stranger.”

“We’ll wait,” Sehun interrupts. He is a little annoyed, to be honest. Why does Xiomara warm up to everyone except him? Why can’t he be the one she’s hugging? Why can’t he be the one she’s having stupid arguments with? She is _his_ cousin, after all.

“Meanwhile, you could use some sleep,” Xiomara tells Kris, who freezes for a moment.

“Shh.”

“What?”

“Shh,” Kris hushes her again. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Sehun asks.

Kris’ eyes narrow and his eyebrows are knitted. Then without a warning, he breaks into a sprint toward the alley on the other side of the road.

“Is that part of being slaphappy?” Xiomara asks Sehun, tilting her head to the side as they gape at Kris running away.

“No. I don’t think so.”

They both bolt after Kris at once and Sehun barely dodges a car that zooms past him.

“Kris!” Xiomara howls as they catch up to Kris before they come to an abrupt halt in the alley. Sehun gawks at the group of bulky men thrashing someone violently against a wall of the alley. One of them plunges his fist into the victim’s guts and only when the victim lets out a mocking laughter does Sehun realize it’s Jaehan. His mouth is covered in blood, but he is still grinning arrogantly. Even when one of the thugs strikes him across his face.

“Well, what a glorious sight,” Kris says happily, smirking smugly.

“Kris,” Sehun chides him in a hiss.

Then rolling his eyes, Kris harrumphs, “Fine.” Just when Jaehan’s attacker brings out a knife to cut through Jaehan’s abdomen, Kris raises his hand and the blade melts into a silvery liquid.

The group of gangsters stops and they turn their attention to Kris.

“Sorry, mates. But I want to be the one to kill him,” Kris shrugs nonchalantly.

“Who the fuck are you?” one of them crows.

Jaehan falls to the ground, hugging his stomach.

“Not the most important question,” Xiomara answers instead and she curls her hands into fists. Purple flames light up and swirl around her fists, and she ferociously bolts forward to the men. Sehun, for a second, readies himself, thinking that she might need backup, but Xiomara bounds off the ground, locks her legs around a man’s neck and brings him down before she hauls every last one of them to the ground with the whip-like purple flames. She drops to one of her knees and plunges her fist into the ground next to the thug’s head. Terrified and astonished, the men look to the hole in the ground as Xiomara rises back to her feet.

That is all the it took to send the thugs scampering. Sehun gathers his jaw from the ground and looks to Kris, who looks annoyed.

“Show off,” he tells Xiomara when he struts past her.

“Well, I am better than you.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Kris grunts and holds a hand down to Jaehan, who accepts it. Kris pulls him up to his feet and drove his fist across Jaehan’s face. Jaehan crashes against Sehun, who almost falls with Jaehan’s weight, but manages to hold them both up. “That’s for being a fucking dick.”

Jaehan laughs despite having been bashed black and blue. He heavily clings onto Sehun’s neck for support and Sehun keeps an arm curled around Jaehan’s waist to keep him up. “Look. I never wanted to hurt him. I really did like him, okay? Honestly. I’m sorry for your loss,” he says breathlessly. “He was… just using me as a distraction.”

“Shut your trap before I shut it for you,” Kris growls, threatening to punch him again.

“Enough, Kris,” Sehun snaps and rests Jaehan against a wall. “Hey, are you okay?” he asks, pressing a hand to Jaehan’s hard and heaving chest.

“I’ll survive. I just owned those guys some money,” he says, wiping the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand. “What are you doing here? And I really did not need saving?”

“Well, you’re welcome,” Xiomara says, rolling her eyes.

“I didn’t ask for your help,” Jaehan spits some blood to the ground. “I’m assuming you’re not here for tea.”

Sehun pushes Jaehan’s shoulder-length hair out of his face and wipes the dirt and blood off his forehead with his bare fingers. Jaehan catches his gaze and holds it suddenly. “We need your help,” Sehun says once Jaehan’s breathing has calmed.

“What… help?”

“We… want to find Kai.”

“The hot, grumpy guy?”

“He’s not grumpy,” Xiomara defends him quickly. “Well, he wasn’t at least.”

“If you had even bothered to show up at Shixun’s funeral, you would have known Kai killed him,” Kris spits furiously.

Jaehan freezes for a moment, staring aimlessly at Kris. “Wh… what?”

“Jaehan,” Sehun calls him and Jaehan turns his eyes to Sehun again. “We really, really need your help. Please. He’s been gone for six months.”

Jaehan pulls himself away from the wall and cards his calloused fingers through his beautiful mane-like hair. “Uh… yeah, yeah. Sure. Of course, but… if he’s gone for six months… it’s almost… impossible.”

“Please,” Sehun pleads. “We need you to at least try.”

After a moment of consideration, Jaehan nods his head shakily. “Okay. Where was the last time you saw him?”

“FLAC,” Sehun informs him. “Can you get us there, Kris?”

Kris bows his head, although the lack of sleep is so palpable in his eyes. “He looks like shit. He needs to sleep,” Xiomara interferes.

“Yes, he does,” Sehun breathes out, rubbing the back of his neck.

“It’s okay. I can drive us there,” Jaehan offers and marches over to Kris. Without alerting the latter, he slips his hand into the back pocket of Kris’ jeans and yanks the car keys out. Kris almost jumps and shoves Jaehan back. Shrugging, Jaehan smirks. “Yeah, you do look like shit.”

“Your face is almost disfigured, man. I’ve been driving since last night. Give me a break,” Kris groans as he starts to follow Jaehan toward the car.

“That was impressive, Xi,” Sehun says when he catches up at Xiomara’s side.

Xiomara looks to him with a startled expression. “Oh… Really?”

“Absolutely.” He smiles reassuringly.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

There is hope after all. They will get Jaehan to FLAC and maybe they will find something. _Something to hope for._

 

* * *

 

It isn’t easy, sneaking into FLAC. But Kai had taught him a way and it is night time, so they have the darkness and silence to their advantage. Sehun’s stomach churns when he walks through the corridors. He wonders how Chanyeol and Baekhyun are doing. He hasn’t talked to them in months and he knows he hasn’t really been a great friend to them. They are here now, though. Sehun wants to run up to their room and knock them awake.

“I’m sorry,” Jaehan whispers and Sehun looks to him. A corner of his lips is bruised and Sehun resists the urge to ask him about how he makes a living, especially since he has a kid. A kid who would be hoping and waiting for his father to come home to him. “About Shixun. I… I wanted to be there, you know. But I realized I was probably no one to him or to his family. So…”

“I understand,” Sehun says when Jaehan trails off. “You never bothered to get to know his family.”

“I never did, I guess,” he sighs.

“None of us even knew you have a son.”

Jaehan stops in his tracks and keeps mum for a beat. “Shixun knew about him.”

“Whatever you say, Jaehan.”

“No, I swear. He knew about Terrance. And… Terrance isn’t my son. Well, not biologically, at least. He’s my sister’s son. Her fuckface boyfriend ran off after the pregnancy and she… well, she died.”

Sehun swallows and stands stiffly, unable to find the right words. Jaehan must have gone through the grief of losing a sibling as well. He clasps a hand to Jaehan’s arm. “I’m sorry.”

“So, I became Terrance’s guardian when he was just a baby and it made sense for me to just be his parent than to be his uncle, you know.”

“Yeah. I do.”

They proceed to the hall without sharing anything else. Kris and Xiomara are already there, and Kris scowls in Sehun’s way with his arms folded before his chest. “We thought you guys had camped out on the corridor there,” Xiomara scoffs.

“This is where I last saw him,” Sehun says, shuddering heavily. He could not even look or speak clearly anymore. His heart begins to ache as though someone is stabbing it repeatedly with a dagger.

Jaehan tosses the car keys to Kris, who looks much fresher after that sleep he’s had on the way here. Dropping to his knees on the ground of the corridor outside the hall, Jaehan closes his eyes, pressing his palms to the floor.

“Do you have anything of his?” he asks, raising his head.

Sehun desperately looks to Kris, who shrugs. “His room is still here. And his mother hasn’t moved his books and other stuff away,” Kris says.

“That’ll work,” Jaehan says.

“I’ll get something,” Sehun offers and starts toward the tower. He pulls his hands out of the pockets of his hoodie and Shixun’s concatenation chain accidentally spills out of the pocket. It drops to the ground and Jaehan quickly picks it up to hand it back to Sehun.

But instead of giving it back, Jaehan is paralyzed for a moment as his eyes bulge out. He clenches the chain in his fist and pins his other hand to the floor, eyes clutched tight. He lets out a sharp gasp and when his eyes fly open, he looks like he has been slapped by a ghost. His panicked gaze darts to meet Sehun’s confused gaze. “What?” Kris asks.

“Jaehan?” Sehun mutters.

“I know where he is,” Jaehan lets out, almost out of breath.

Sehun falls to his knees with his heart hammering against his chest. “You found him? You found Kai?!”

“No,” Jaehan pants out. “I found Shixun. Fuck. He’s not dead.”


	4. Running Against Oddities

Countless minutes pass and no one comes up with anything to say. Sehun keeps his aimless gaze on his clammy palms resting on his lap as he is perched on the car’s hood with Jaehan by his side. Kris is restlessly pacing by the roadside while Xiomara is sitting on car’s roof with her legs folded and chin burrowed in her hands.

Jaehan rubs his temples when Sehun looks up at him. “Can you try again?” he asks the man in a low voice, breaking the silence. Jaehan turns his attention to Sehun and opens his mouth to say something, but is cut off by Kris’ ferocious growl.

“Are you insane?! Why would you even be remotely considering what he’s saying is true?!” he snaps, his voice blaring into the silent night. “We… buried him,” Kris spits through his clenched teeth, eyes glistening with furious tears. “We were… there when he… I… saw him… He was…” he trails off, clasping a hand to his forehead. Sehun jumps off the car’s hood and rushes to his side.

“Hey, hey,” he almost reaches for Kris’ arm when Kris lunges for him and throws his entire weight onto Sehun. He freezes for a moment when Kris breaks down into sobs, viciously hugging Sehun for support. Sehun hesitantly curls his arms around Kris’ trembling frame and heaves a sigh. “It’s okay. I… I’m sorry.”

Kris sniffles and pulls away, turning his back to the rest to wipe the tears off his cheeks. “It doesn’t make sense,” he spits, facing Jaehan. “You must be out of your mind.”

Jaehan remains calm. A side of his face is bruised and he looks unbelievably tired, too. “I saw him. I can’t locate dead people. But I found him. Alive and breathing. I have no reason to lie.”

“Then where is he?” he snarls at Jaehan, lurching forward, but Sehun holds him back.

Jaehan gnaws on his lower lip for a second. “That’s the thing. When I… found him… he was in… Coalbrook and then he was… gone. I couldn’t locate him again.”

Kris lets out a lifeless laugh and kicks a pebble on the road. “You think this is some sort of a sick joke?”

“Coalbrook?” Sehun says. “Where is that?”

“It’s a small town not too far from here. My family and I lived there for a short while when I was a child. He’s just bullshitting.”

Jaehan raises his hands in defence. “You seriously think I would have any idea of where you grew your little baby ass up? I don’t even know what your surname is!”

“Shixun was buried,” Kris states firmly. “We had a funeral for him! He isn’t in Coalbrook. He is buried in West Hill Graveyard, do you get me?!”

“Well, let’s get this confusion cleared out, then,” Jaehan says, hopping off the car’s hood.

“What?” Xiomara speaks up for the first time in a while. She climbs down the car and glowers at Jaehan. “Oh, no, no, no. Kris is right. You are out of your mind.”

“Wait, what is happening?” Kris demands.

Jaehan sucks in a deep breath and says, “Let’s go see if he’s there. Buried in West Hill Graveyard.”

Kris clenches his eyes and draws in a deep breath. “I will fucking kill you before you succeed. The dead don’t come back. You want me to dig into the grave of my dead boyfriend?”

“You know what, I just realized you guys are the ones who needed my help. Not the other way around,” Jaehan harrumphs. “I am done. I am going Coalbrook to look for him, anyway. He was there, which means I can locate him from there. Whether you lot want to believe me or not, I do care for him. And I am certain that he is alive.”

Xiomara licks her lips and says, “It’s nuts, but… it’s worth a shot.”

“What’s worth a shot?!” Kris crows angrily.

“Hey, don’t yell at me. This is what we have right now. We can either choose to believe this guy or we could all go home because we have absolutely nothing else.”

Kris turns to Sehun. “You’re awfully quiet. Please tell me you don’t believe him.”

Sehun does not know what he should believe. He came here hoping to find Kai and he has found something ridiculous. But he knows for a fact that Jaehan has no reason to fool them. “He saw… Shixun,” he lets out in a whisper.

“Yeah, and you believe that, too?” he frowns.

“Kai killed him, Kris,” Sehun says. “Now, there’s a chance that we could find something that contradicts that belief.”

“It’s a _fact_ , not a belief,” Kris grumbles. “Shixun. Is. Dead. It’s nonsense and it doesn’t make sense! It’s not possible for him to be alive.”

“Yeah, as if nothing impossible has happened to us lately,” Sehun scoffs. He had felt like he was dead when Kai had thrust him into the Darkness Dimension. “A lot of crazy things have happened, Kris. Dead people _do_ come back,” he shoves past Kris, their shoulders bumping into each other.

“You’re kidding me, right?”

“Arthur came back. We can all either stand here and pointlessly discuss this over and over again, or we could go with Jaehan.”

“No,” Kris says, grabbing Sehun’s wrist. “Don’t.”

“Kris, please,” he wrenches his wrist free and walks over to Jaehan, who is waiting by the car. “You absolutely sure that you saw Shixun.”

Jaehan nods his head. “He… he is alive.”

“Who did we bury, then?” he mutters to himself with tears stinging the back of his eyes.

“All right!” Kris yelps out of the blue. “Fine! Let’s go to West Hill. And find out who’s buried in the coffin.” He yanks his car keys out and climbs into the driver’s seat.

 

* * *

 

“We don’t have a shovel,” Xiomara says when they reach Shixun’s grave. Sehun stares at the headstone and the inscription that reads, **‘Forever Loved Son, Brother, and Friend’**. Sehun’s stomach lurches. He runs out of breath then, as the darkness curls its macabre limbs around his heart. He turns to gasp for air and Kris grabs hold of his shoulders.

“Are you all right?”

Sehun shakes his head, pressing his mouth to Kris’ shoulder when Kris pulls him into a protective embrace. “Is he okay?” Xiomara inquires.

Sehun draws in a long breath and steadies himself before withdrawing from Kris’ embrace. “I’m okay. Sorry.”

“Okay, so where do we get a shovel?”

“You know, for a seventeen-year-old girl, you seem pretty badass and laid-back about digging into a dead person’s grave,” Jaehan remarks.

Xiomara shrugs, smirking. “Why, thank you.”

“We don’t need a shovel,” Kris grunts and lowers to a crouch. He brings a hand to the gravestone and gently draws his fingers along Shixun’s name. He casts his gaze low and swallows before removing the half-wilted flowers. He then presses the hand to the stone and sucks in a breath.

Sehun will never get used to this. Kris’ Flair is incredible and utterly destructive if used in the wrong way for all the evil purposes. The stone melts into loose, dry cement with his touch. And the soil beneath is completely rendered soft before the tombstone and dirt melt all the way through.

Kris stops after a moment when the soil keeps on flowing, but the coffin is never found. “What the…”

Jaehan does not look surprised, but Sehun could not contain his shock from the unexpected revelation. “How…” Xiomara lets out.

“You just don’t know when to quit, do you?” the threatening voice surges from the dark around them. Sehun’s blood run cold as he bites back on a scream when his chest feels as though it is pierced through by a dagger.

Kris shoots up to his feet when the swirls of shadows gather around him and Sehun. Then in the blink of an eye, Sehun sees him, flashing out of the darkness and shadows. “Kai,” Kris gasps, gaping at Kai standing right before his very eyes. The darkness looms around him as though it worships Kai. He is its master, its wielder. Kai’s eyes are completely black, his hair is slightly longer and his jawline is covered with a thin trail of stubble.

Without a warning, Kai grabs hold of Kris’ hands. A sharp shriek escapes Kris’ lips as he is brought down to his knees with Kai still gripping his hands.

“No!” Sehun screeches once he has found the strength to move. “No, Kai!” Xiomara vaults forward from the other side with her hands in flames.

Then just like that, Kai disappears, right after throwing Sehun a dark glance. “Bloody hell,” Xiomara pants out, gawking into nothing. “It was… him.”

“Kris?!” Sehun yawps, dropping to his knees before Kris and clasps his hands to either side of Kris’ face. “Hey!”

Kris shakes his head, blinking rapidly. “What just… happened?” he lets out, staring at his hands. Sehun curls his fingers around Kris’ hands. They feel cold and stiff, but they move when Kris clenches them into fists. “I felt it… The darkness,” he exhales.

“Can you still use your Flair?” Sehun asks desperately. His body quakes with fear and anger alike. It wasn’t Kai. It wasn’t Kai. Kai would never…

Kris plunges his hand into the grass and vacantly stares at it. “No, I can’t focus.” He rises to his feet and pants for air. “What did he just do? Why would he… Oh, God. Where is Shixun?! How is he able to do that?! Show up out of nowhere?! He’s not a teleporter!”

“I can’t locate him,” Jaehan says. “He travels through the Darkness Dimension. He travels with the Darkness. I can’t locate someone that is out of our reality.”

Sehun does not care about that right now. “Shixun must have been in Coalbrook. We have to go now, Kris.”

Kris nods shakily, still staring at his palms. “Okay. Okay.”

 

* * *

 

“Where are we?” Jaehan echoes the question that is running in Sehun’s mind as Kris pulls the car into the driveway of a house.

“We used to live near the town. I always came out here to play with a friend. I just thought maybe we could rest here for a while looking for…” he does not finish his sentence. Everyone is still rather shaken about what had happened at the graveyard.

“Does your friend live here?” Sehun inquires.

“Yes, don’t worry. He’s a Flairer, too.”

“But he doesn’t go to FLAC?”

“No… Um, he can’t afford it,” he sighs and turns the engine off. “Come on.”

“Where do you want to start?” Sehun asks Jaehan as they make their way up the steps of the veranda.

“I… don’t know. But I think maybe the house where Kris used to live in should be a good place to start. I have a feeling that’s where he might have been,” Jaehan says with eyes full of fatigue.

“You should take care of that,” Sehun points the bruise on his left cheek.

Before Jaehan could respond, they are caught off-guard by the sudden cry.

“Catch him! Catch him!” a boy screams as he bolts toward them from the back of the veranda.

“What?” Sehun mutters. The boy accidentally lunges at Xiomara and they both tumble to the ground with the boy mangling Xiomara under her.

“What the hell?!” Xiomara growls, shoving the boy off her and as soon as they have staggered up to their feet, she repeatedly and mercilessly smacks him on his arm and head.

“Ouch! Ouch, I’m sorry!” he yelps, covering his head to shield it from Xiomara’s hands. “I was trying to catch my ferret! He’s gone! He’s running! Oh, please, help me!” the boy cries, tugging at Xiomara’s hand as he pursues after the white thing that slithers between their feet, but he is forced to a stop when Kris grabs his hoodie and yanks it back. “Hey!” he shouts in protest before his jaw slackens and eyes bulge out. “K-Kris? Oh, my god!”

Kris’ lips stretch into a wide grin. “I see you’re still clumsy as ever, Jayce.” He hauls the boy into a tight hug.

 

 


	5. The Return

“Is that a mouse or a cat?” Xiomara asks after a moment of glowering at the white ferret in Jayce’s hands.

Jayce’s lips form a pout as he locks the ferret in a room before returning to the kitchen counter.

“I think it’s an otter,” says Jaehan as he lazily looks around the house with his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

“It’s a ferret,” Jayce snaps, though it is difficult to picture the boy angry. Sehun could hardly take his eyes off the boy. He is like a cartoon character that has jumped out of a Hallmark card. He accidentally knocks a mug off the edge of the counter and Kris catches it.

“Careful, Jayce,” he chides gently, placing the mug back on the counter.

“Tea?” Jayce offers. Sehun shakes his head while Xiomara and Kris nod theirs.

“Where’s your bog?” Jaehan inquires and Jayce blinks blankly at him.

“I’m sorry, my… what?”

“Toilet,” Kris clarifies as he goes through the cupboard and fishes out a bag of cookies.

“Oh, upstairs. Second door to the right.”

As Jaehan excuses himself to use the bathroom, Xiomara helps herself to the apple on the counter. “Where are the others?” Kris asks Jayce, who is busy filling the kettle with water.

A corner of his lips quirk into a smile as he shrugs. “Mom is never home. My sister moved in with her boyfriend and well… I’m just all by myself here most of the time after work.”

“You’re working?”

“Yeah. In a café nearby.”

“Is that why you talk to… ferrets?” Xiomara scoffs. “Because you’re so lonely?”

Jayce does not seem offended by her remark. He musters up a smile for her.

“Where’s your dad, then?” Kris asks, handing Sehun a chocolate chip cookie, which Sehun accepts. Kris eyes him intently as Sehun takes a shy bite of the cookie and smiles gently once Sehun has swallowed it.

Jayce freezes at the sink after the tap off. He stares at the kettle and shrugs, heaving a sigh. “He died. It’s been, uh, seven years.”

It takes Kris a moment to respond after he turns around to face his friend. He wraps an arm around Jayce’s shoulders, rubbing circles over his arm, and mutters, “I’m so sorry. I… I didn’t know.”

The younger boy draws in deep breath and grins again. “Nah, it’s all right, man,” Jayce perks back up and plugs the kettle in. “So, what’s up with you?”

Kris is still frowning, but he decides to let it go as he takes his seat at the kitchen counter. “We… are looking for someone.”

Jayce does not react overenthusiastically. “Oh.”

Kris looks disappointed. “I know I’m a dick. I didn’t visit for years and I just show up out of nowhere because I’m here for another purpose.”

“No, no,” Jayce murmurs, keeping his eyes low and clears his throat as though he is struggling to keep his voice steady. “It’s not like that,” he lifts his head and shoots Kris a thin smile. He returns his attention back to the mugs and teabags. “So, who are you looking for?”

“My brother,” Kris says nonchalantly and yawns before rubbing his eyes.

“Mark or Kai?” he inquires, flumping on the stool beside Kris.

“Kai. He… is missing. Well, not exactly, but I have to find him. It’s not just him we’re looking for… I, um, my boyfriend died last year. And you know the other guy,” he points upwards. “He’s a Locator and he… found Shixun. Alive. Here. In Coalbrook.”

Sehun is surprised about how forthcoming and honest Kris has been to Jayce thus far. It must have been years since they last saw each other and yet, Kris seems so comfortable around Jayce. Sehun does not know why it makes his stomach stir with jealousy.

Jayce’s wide eyes seem to soften a little as he reaches for Kris’ hand. “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. I was a dick to him, too.” He sighs heavily.

“But how can he be… alive?”

Kris shrugs. “I don’t know. I don’t believe it,” his gaze darts to Sehun. “But I’m here, anyway.”

“And you are?” Jayce asks Xiomara, who is staring at the steam from the kettle curl in the air.

“I’m none of your business,” Xiomara mutters without even sparing Jayce a glance.

Kris laughs despite himself and Sehun stares at him in another wave of surprise. It is nice to hear him laugh so lightly like this. Sehun does not remember when the last time he had heard himself laugh, though.

“Xi, you do realize he’s going to provide us shelter for the night, right?” Kris tells Xiomara, who blinks at him and then fixes Jayce a look.

Jayce grins. “It’s okay. Your honesty is refreshing.” He turns to Sehun.

“I’m Sehun,” Sehun introduces himself before he could ask.

“He’s my late boyfriend’s… brother. Twin brother, actually,” Kris says and Jayce’s eyebrows rise. “Hey, I hope it won’t be too much trouble if we crashed here tonight.”

“No, not at all,” he smiles at Kris like a lovesick fool who has waited far too long to meet his friend again. Jayce’s lithe and petite body hardly resembles that of an eighteen-year-old. He wears his dark hair short and his skin slightly tanned. If Kris hadn’t mentioned his age earlier, Sehun would have thought he is a young teenager. “Mom won’t be back tonight, I guess. Even if she does, she’ll be too drunk to bother with whom I bring home.” He rises back to his feet to make the tea he promised.

“So, she won’t be bothered about the fact that you have three men and a girl here?” Xiomara asks, cocking a brow.

“Where’s the girl?” Jayce gasps subtly, faking a shocked expression and Kris stifles a laugh into the back of his hand.

“Ha-ha,” Xiomara rolls her eyes. Jayce offers another one of his pleasant smiles as he hands a mug of hot tea.

“Thank you,” Sehun lets out, trying to smile at him, but he could not get himself to do it. He suddenly feels heavy, his heart weighs a ton. His body is torn with fatigue and there is just so much darkness around him. He could not take Kai off his mind. Kai had been there at the graveyard. He had seen Sehun. It was him and yet, it was not him. Those eyes did not belong to Kai, not the Kai Sehun used to know, at least. Is he completely unredeemable now? Will Sehun be able to get him back? That aside, he wonders what has happened to Shixun’s body. Where is the coffin? Is Jaehan right about Shixun being alive? Sehun does not believe it blindly, but he supposes having a little hope would not kill. Arthur Prescott had come back to life. Maybe there is more to this situation than what Sehun is seeing.

What would have happened if he had not altered Grace’s destiny? Sehun does not think he has ever been truly happy ever since the day he had changed Grace’s destiny. He had lost everything and he is losing everything all over again. The pain and hollowness take over his senses again as he breaks into a sweat, breathing laboured.

“Sehun,” Kris’ voice gets his momentary attention and he miserably looks to Kris like a silent cry for help. Kris’ expression hardens and tenses at once. He starts to rise from his seat. “Are you okay?”

Sehun shakes his head as tears well up in his tears. He slides his hand over the counter, as if he could reach for help, as if someone could pull him out of the darkness, the agony. Kris hurries to his side and snakes an arm around him. “I can’t… breathe,” he whimpers, burying his face into Kris’ stomach to hide his tears.

“Come on,” Kris pulls him up to his feet and Sehun heavily leans onto him. He is aware of Xiomara on his other side, curling an arm around his waist.

“Is he going through some sort of a panic attack?” Xiomara says as they guide him to the couch. Sehun collapses onto it on his own and gasps heavily for air.

“What happened?” Jaehan’s voice echoes in a corner.

Sehun focuses on everything but his breathing. All the noises amplify and his head pounds. Kris drops to his knees before Sehun and clasps his hands on the sides of Sehun’s face. Jayce looks panicked as he brings a cup of water and a phone probably to call an ambulance.

“Look at me, Sehun,” Kris says in a low voice, staring deep into Sehun’s eyes. His hands feel cold against Sehun’s burning cheeks. “You’re going to be all right. Just look at me and try to breathe with me,” he says calmly and Sehun keeps his alarmed gaze on Kris’ eyes as he pants for oxygen. He tries to mimic the flow of Kris’ breaths and he could not follow. Kris presses his thumbs to Sehun’s cheekbones and Sehun clings onto Kris’ wrists.

“I can’t,” Sehun rasps painfully.

“Jesus Christ, move aside,” Jaehan pushes past Xiomara and climbs onto the couch beside Sehun. As Kris retrieves his hands, Jaehan firmly grips a side of Sehun’s head with one hand. And the other is pressed against Sehun’s chest. “Stop,” he says like it is an order. “Tell it to stop. Breathe. Slow. Don’t pant. Don’t fight for it. Just breathe. Complete breaths. It’s going to be okay. Tell it stop. Tell whatever that is tormenting your head to stop. You are going to be okay,” he says and Sehun only realizes that his breathing has calmed when Jaehan smiles at him, brushing the bangs out of Sehun’s sweat-slicked forehead. “That’s a good boy,” he smirks.

Sehun closes his eyes and takes in deep breaths. He feels weak and unbelievably tired. It feels as though the emptiness has been etched into his heart. His head falls forward and he rests it on Jaehan’s shoulder for a moment. Jaehan smells like hot sand and coconut. It is comforting. For some odd reason, it reminds Sehun of Kai. The old Kai. The Kai that he will never see again.

His tear seeps into Jaehan’s shirt. “Maybe you should get some sleep,” Kris says, breaking the silence and Sehun feels his hand on the small of his back. He raises his head to regard Kris with a reassuring smile. Kris frowns instead. “Come on,” he helps Sehun up to his feet.

“My sister’s old room is pretty decent,” Jayce says as he leads them up the stairs. Kris does not let go of Sehun’s hand until they have reached the bedroom.

 

 

* * *

When Sehun rouses from the deep sleep, which he hasn’t had in quite some while, he finds Kris staring directly at him, seated in the desk chair in the dark room. Sehun props himself up on his elbows and blinks sleepily at Kris. The room is small, the bed barely fits Sehun’s height. But he slept well. He checks the time on the alarm clock and sighs when it reads 20:36.

He looks to Kris again, wondering why he is staring at him. Has been watching him sleep? Sehun had made sure that Kris spends some time with Jayce before he went to sleep, but what is Kris doing here back in the room, pinning him with an expressionless stare.

“Hey,” Sehun mumbles hoarsely, sitting up on the edge of the bed.

“Hey,” Kris sighs, finally tearing his gaze away from Sehun and leans back in the chair. He looks down to his hands. “I can’t… I can’t really use my Flairs.”

“What?”

“I mean, it works… But I can’t… It’s like I… don’t want to.”

Sehun extends a hand and tries to hold Kris’ hand, but Kris withdraws his hand like it is burnt. Sehun feels a little hurt, but he does not show it. “Kai did something?”

“Must be,” Kris scrubs his face with those hands. An uncomfortable silence hangs between them before Kris breaks it. “Where do we go from here?”

“I don’t know. Where are Jaehan and Xi?”

“Sleeping. I hope.”

“Have you slept?”

Kris shakes his head. “I was… catching up with Jayce,” he smiles at a thought. “He has changed a lot and yet, hasn’t changed at all.”

Sehun smiles. “You guys were thick friends?”

“We were young. We met here and there by chance a couple of times, but I guess I never…” he trails off for a second, frowning hard at the floor.

“What is it?”

Kris hesitates for a moment. “I wanted a break from Shixun because I never believed he was… the one. I mean, I always felt like I… I loved another. The longing was so… real. And painful. I only realized it after so many years. But it was too late, you know. Shixun and I had gone solid. So, I forewent the childish longing and settled for Shixun. I asked Shixun out. I was the one who wanted to get serious with Shixun. I made us exclusive and I think everyone who knew us thought we were going to get married. I wanted to marry Shixun.” A pause. “I would have. I mean, I loved… _love_ him. But a part of me always wondered if I… I were meant to be with someone else. Someone I abandoned. A love I didn’t bother to find out if it were requited. I mean, I was young. We both were. I wasn’t sure if he even thought about me. Don’t get me wrong. I loved Shixun truly. But I also wondered if…”

“If he’s the only one you loved?” Sehun finishes, still smiling pitifully.

Kris nods slowly, letting out a heavy sigh.

“It’s Jayce, isn’t it? That’s why you hesitated about coming here.”

Kris nods again. “And you know what? I don’t love Jayce. Not like that. I wish I had tried to find this out earlier. I never would have left Shixun. It is Shixun that I really, completely love. And it just hurts so much that he isn’t here anymore to hear that and I don’t even know where he is,” he plants his head in his hands.

Sehun is not sure if Kris wants his comfort, but he decides to offer it anyway. He leans forward and rubs Kris’ knee. “Things will get better, Kris.”

“And you know what’s worse?” he asks, looking up at Sehun with furious tears in his eyes. “Every time I listen to your voice or see your eyes… I just hear him and see _him_. I only remember the years of my life that I shared with him, Sehun. I couldn’t remember a life _without_ him.”

“Oh, Kris,” Sehun breathes out and takes Kris’ hands. “I’m sorry. I wish I could just stop hurting everyone around me.”

“What are you not telling me, Sehun?” Kris blurts out. “I understand that Kai might be haunted and possessed by Grace and Gwenna’s father. And mom told me he might have some… persona in the Darkness Dimension. I’m not sure I even grasp the Darkness Dimension thing correctly. How… how do you know all this? I have been with Kai all my life and you guys became friends only a couple of years ago. How do you know things that I never had any idea of? My mother doesn’t tell me anything more. I’m just so lost, to be honest.”

Sehun clears his throat and releases Kris’ hand. “I haven’t told you many things, Kris. Because I don’t know how to explain them. I’m not even sure if you’ll believe me.”

“I believe you, Sehun. You could tell me a tomato is dancing and I would believe you.”

Sehun bites his lip, lowering his gaze. “Atmokinesis is not my only Flair.” Kris listens attentively. Sehun sucks in a deep breath. “I also have… Destiny Manipulation.”

“What… does that mean?”

“It means I can alter people’s destiny.”

Kris raises a curious eyebrow. “Destiny? You believe in such things?”

“It exists, Kris.”

“Well, what do you do with it?”

“Nothing much. I can’t use it or control it without… Shixun. The thing is when I… change someone’s destiny or make minor alterations in their destinies, the course of the fate changes, too. Minor alterations affect the fate in a smaller margin. But when I change a destiny entirely, the entire fate of that person and everyone around that person changes completely.”

“Okay.”

Sehun considers Kris’ eyes before he narrates the entire story, leaving no details out. Kris does not even breathe out a word as he listens ferociously. Once Sehun is done, he waits for Kris’ response.

Kris lets out a loud breath and palms his forehead. “That explains so much about the drastic change within you.” He shakes his head. “Why are you even doing this? You should have returned to the old fate when you still could have. At least Shixun is alive in that!”

“Everyone had a better life in this fate before everything turned into a shitstorm. I couldn’t go back. I… lost too much to just give up and go back.” Tears sting in his eyes. “And recently when I went back, I met Kai. He told me about his alter persona in the Darkness Dimension.”

Kris studies his expression for a beat. “You love Kai.”

Sehun nods his head slowly.

“You love the Kai in the other fate.”

“Yes.”

“Why are you looking for Kai, then?”

“Because I promised Kai that I will not give up on him. That I will give him a better life. He wanted a second chance,” he quickly wipes the tear from his cheek. “But no matter how hard I try, it seems like his destiny is… destructive. It feels like… I’m not his destiny. As much as I want to believe that I am, I’m not. I keep trying and trying, but I can’t… make his life better. It is his fate, his destiny to be self-destructive.”

Kris leans closer and cups Sehun’s cheek. “Then stop trying,” he whispers. “Can’t you see that you are the one who is being completely ruined here?”

Only when Kris wipes the tears off the corners of Sehun’s eyes with his thumbs does Sehun realize he is silently weeping. “When will it stop?” he says in a shaky breath. “W-when will it… s-stop hurting like this?”

“I don’t know,” Kris mutters, his own eyes glistening. He presses their foreheads together and closes his eyes. Sehun shuts his own as well. Kris tips his head just slightly and brushes their noses together. Sehun’s heart thunders in his chest, but he does not have the strength to do anything.

“Sehun! Kris!” Jaehan’s voice booms on the other side of the door and Kris and Sehun spring up to their feet at once. Jaehan bangs the door open with Shixun’s concatenation chain in his hand and before Sehun could ask what is wrong, the glass windows shatter into smithereens as a black clad figure surges into the room through the window.

Everyone freezes for a second, but the intruder immediately bolts for the door. Jaehan looks horrified as he gawks at the intruder, who sprints out of the room. “What… just happened?” Sehun exhales with jaw on the ground and eyes plucked out.

Kris snaps out of the shock first and turns on his heel before charging after the intruder. Sehun and Jaehan promptly follow.

“Hey!” Kris crows after the intruder who jumps off the stairs’ railings and lands lightly at the bottom of the stairs. He has a black mask covering his lower face and his eyes are curtained by long black hair. “Shit, he’s going after Jayce!” Kris bolts down the stairs in leaps and Sehun tries to keep up.

Right before the intruder reaches the couch where Jayce is sleeping soundly, Kris grabs the intruder by the back of his neck. The intruder spins around effortlessly and plunges his fist into Kris’ face. Kris stumbles a step back but he quickly regains his bearings and lifts his hand. When his Flair does not help, he stomps his boot into the intruder’s abdomen, sending him tumbling over the back of the couch.

Jayce wakes up with a jolt and gasps before staggering off the couch. “What the hell?!”

Jaehan is not helping. He is just staring stupidly at the intruder, who quickly shoots up back to his feet and lunges for Kris. This time, with a ripped off leg of the coffee table. He slams the side of Kris’ head with the table leg and Sehun lurches forward to help Kris.

“Xiomara!” Sehun cries as he throws a punch towards the intruder, but the latter catches his fist and boots him the chest. Sehun stumbles back as Kris advances forward again. He grips the table leg and wrenches it free from the intruder’s hand before smashing it against the intruder’s head and drives his fist into his face. He then strikes the intruder with a brutal kick, pinning the intruder against the front door.

Xiomara joins them with flaring hands, but she stops short when she sees Kris holding the intruder against the door. “Who the fuck are you?!” Kris hisses, ripping the mask off the intruder’s face. He drops the table leg and releases the intruder altogether, staggering a couple of steps back. His face has wilted into horror.

Sehun’s stomach feels as though it is stabbed as he stares at Shixun glaring at Kris through the bangs of his hair. Kris, without having recovered from the shock, vaults forward and gasps, “Shixun!” he grabs Shixun’s face with both hands and almost pulls him into an embrace. But he retrieves his hands with a sharp cry and Shixun picks the table leg up before smashing the doorknob with it. He disappears through it and into the darkness of the night without looking back.

“Kris!” Xiomara yelps. Sehun is too terrified to move and so is Jaehan and Jayce.

Kris is panting hard, staring at his palms. They are covered in small deep cuts that bleed excessively. “H-how…” he looks up at the opened door and then drops his gaze back to his bleeding palms.

Sehun turns his head and glances to Jaehan. “It’s him?”

Jaehan nods his head shakily. “He’s looking for him?” he asks, looking to Jayce, who might be shivering, hugging his blanket to his chest. “But why?”

Sehun shakes his head and hurries to Kris’ side. “Oh… god,” he lets out, taking Kris’ hands into his. Blood drips between Kris’ fingers and down his wrists. But Kris looks back to Jayce.

“Jayce, how’s your Flair?” Kris asks in a trembling voice.

“Kris, that can wait!” Xiomara yelps.

“No!” Kris approaches him, dropping his bleeding hands to his sides. Jayce could not take his eyes of the trail of blood Kris leaves behind him. “Your Flair, Jayce. Can you… manipulate the universe?”

Jayce hesitantly shakes his head, looking like he might throw up. “Kris, you’re bleeding,” he whispers.


	6. An Inch Closer

“The bleeding has stopped at least,” Xiomara sighs in relief as she rinses the blood soused rag in the sink. Jayce returns to the kitchen with the mop after cleaning the blood from the floor. Colour has left his face a while ago and he still looks pretty horrified.

Sehun ties the bandage in a knot and softly brushes his fingertips over Kris’ bandaged palms. “I should have told you,” he mutters. Kris does not look up from his hands. “Shixun,” the name burns on his tongue. “has this Flair he can’t control. Whenever his skin comes in contact with others, it… cuts them. Like papercuts.”

“It was Shixun,” Kris lets out and Sehun is not sure if it is a question.

“Yes,” Sehun decides to say, anyway. “It was him.”

“How?” he meets Sehun’s eyes. “He did not… recognize me.”

“I truly don’t know, Kris.”

Kris shakes his head, viciously blinking away the tears in his eyes.

“Why did he come after little Oliver Twist here?” Xiomara questions, jerking her head in Jayce’s way. Jayce freezes against the wall as he stares at Kris, who pins him with a knowing look.

“That’s why he’s in Coalbrook?” Kris murmurs. “To look for _you_?”

Jayce swallows hard. “I don’t know who that is. I don’t know why he broke into my house and… what did he do to your hands?!” he yaps nervously. “Stuff’s broken. I don’t know how I’m gonna explain it to my mom.”

“I thought she doesn’t care,” Xiomara comments and for once, Jayce does not smile.

Kris rises to his feet, although Sehun initially refuses to let go of his hands. “Well, he wasn’t here to ask you out for dinner,” he says. “Jayce, I remember you and your sister telling about your Flair. You can manipulate… bend the universe, can’t you?”

“No, Kris! I can’t,” he rasps. “It doesn’t work like that and I don’t know how to get it to work. I swear I have never done anything after… I swear. I stopped trying. Doesn’t it terrify you?” his watery eyes are quivering with fear. “What happens if I… I meddle with the universe and day and night and… the world?”

Kris scoffs lifelessly. “Yeah, that does terrify me. But I just saw my dead boyfriend standing right in front of my eyes, breathing and alive.” He pauses, casting his gaze low. “Looking at me like I’m a stranger. Nothing terrifies me more than that.”

“Okay, time out,” Xiomara says. “What is going on here? What do you mean… manipulation of the universe?”

“He’s a Unikinetic Flairer,” Kris says it as though they are supposed to understand it. “What… what can you do?”

Jayce gnaws on his lower lip. “Kris, please. I don’t live like that anymore.”

“Then do you want to live like a boring Pootle all your life?! Is this what you want, Jayce? We used to talk about traveling the world together! Seeing many great things, going on many great adventures! And now you work in a café and a raise a pet ferret, living in a lonely house,” Kris growls. “Is this the life you want to live, then?!”

Jayce closes his eyes and shakes his head, slowly. “Why does it matter, though?”

Kris sucks in a deep breath. “Because he came for you. And that means… he either wants to get rid of you or he wants to do something with your Flair.”

“You can’t tell anyone, Kris,” Jayce pleads. “They will take me away,” he says in a very low, shaky voice.

“I know. I never told anyone, Jayce. I’m not going to let anyone take you away, either. But you have to be safe now. He will come back for you.”

“Kris,” Xiomara calls. “He can… literally do stuff with the universe? Like with planets?”

“Their orbits and positions, right?” Kris asks Jayce, who does not respond. “And the flow of day and night. Uh, Circadian Manipulation. Right?”

“You got a fancy word for that?” Jayce snorts, shaking his head. “It’s not just… that, Kris. There’s more, but I can’t do it. Like I said, I don’t know how to.”

“It doesn’t really matter now. What matters is that you’re safe and that… we find out why… Shixun was here.” He turns around to face Jaehan who strides into the kitchen with a red vein protruding in his forehead.

“We have to go. He’s left,” Jaehan says. “I… I waited until he has settled in a location and—”

“Where is he?” Kris cuts in.

“I’m not sure. Somewhere near Heathwell. I’ve never been there. There’s… uh, an orchard. A white… mansion. That is all that I see.”

Sehun’s breath hitches as he jolts upright. Kris glances in his way. “What’s wrong?”

Sehun gulps. “There was this… this faux chateau that I know. It’s surrounded by an orchard. But I don’t think it exists in this… fate,” he only keeps his eyes on Kris. “It was… Gwenna’s chateau in the other… you know. It was a couple of hours away from Gawlreng. Nearby a fort.”

“Heathwell is couple of hours away from Gawlreng and there’s the abandoned Kadalor Fort around the corner,” Jaehan says, crossing his arms over his chest.

Sehun tries to steady his breathing. “They exist, then?”

“What are you talking about?”

Kris steps closer to Sehun, so close that Sehun could feel Kris’ ragged breath on his face. “Gwenna doesn’t have a… mansion of her own. Not in Heathwell at least,” he says in a whisper.

“What happens if we go there and… find Shixun?” Sehun asks.

There is clear dread in Kris’ eyes. “We get him back.”

Sehun nods his head.

“Guys, can we just call the authority?” Jayce suggests. “And maybe call our parents?”

“Yeah, ‘cause what just happened in here and the return of our dead cousin are very believable,” Xiomara scoffs.

“Xi’s right,” Sehun says. “We have asked for their help and we didn’t really get any. I’m going after Shixun.”

Kris agrees with a bow of his head. “And you can come with me,” he tells Jayce. “Leave this place, Jayce. Come with me,” he brushes the inside of Jayce’s hand with his stiff, bandaged knuckles. “It’s a shitty world out there. But there’s also so much to see. You’re a Flairer. Live like one. Be… free. Come with me, Jayce.”

“Kris—”

“I can’t let you stay. If he is after you, he will come for you again. And I need your help. I also want you to be safe. So, I’m not leaving this place without you, Jayce.”

Jayce regards Kris with a sorrowful look. Then smiling faintly, he nods. “All right.”

Kris carefully curls an arm around Jayce’s shoulder and pulls him for a brotherly hug. He then walks over to Jaehan. “Still with us?”

Jaehan offers a thin smile. “Does the bear shit in the woods?”

“I’m sorry, by the way. For not… trusting you.”

“Say we shake hands when yours are healed?” he smirks and Kris mirrors the smug smile.

“Let’s count on it. You’ll drive?”

“Will be my pleasure.”

 

* * *

 

As they have to pass through Gawlreng to get to Heathwell, Jaehan suggests that they stop to get something proper to eat, rather than just wrapped sandwiches and biscuits bought from the convenience stores, and perhaps stop by his house to shower and get into fresh clothes.

“Ter is with his caregiver, so we could just crash my place,” Jaehan says as he pulls the car into the half-packed parking lot. Sehun glances out the window. Gawlreng preens on its abstemiousness. The town has its own charm. Sehun fails to spot any decent restaurants, but every single street is bordered by small hawker stalls, which sell an assortment of savouries and delicacies. It makes his stomach growl.

“What is… this place?” Jayce breathes out, gawking out the window. He reminds Sehun of himself when he first came to Gawlreng, but the town is not in the kind of ruins it was in the other fate. Jayce must simply be astonished by the searing streets and their rugged, rowdy inhabitants. Even on a morning like this, the town is already up and about. Like the sun.

“It’s where the Snatchers live,” Xiomara says without any mean remarks. She looks too tired for them.

“Snatchers,” Jayce echoes. “I’ve heard of them. Never really… acquainted myself with one.”

“Well, now you have,” Jaehan says, exiting the car, and prompting the others to follow. “Oh, great,” he groans suddenly, face turning pale.

“Yo!” someone cries from the other side of the road and Sehun spies a group of thugs walking in their way. “When do you plan on paying up, huh?”

“Soon,” Jaehan nonchalantly calls out to them, shrugging a little.

But they do not stop in their hasty tracks. They stride straight up to Jaehan and one of them almost grabs him his shirt if Kris hasn’t put himself between them. “We want no trouble,” he says, bringing a bandaged hand up to push the man back.

“Yeah? Neither do we. But we also want our money back,” the guy spits.

“I’ll pay you back as soon as I get my hands on some, all right?” Jaehan snaps.

“How much does he owe you?” Kris asks with a sigh.

“670. Including interest,” says the thug.

Kris nods his head considerately. “All right. Here,” he fishes his wallet out of his back pocket and hands the guy all the money the wallet holds as well as the gold chain around his neck. “That should cover it and more.”

The guy gapes at the thick gold chain and the money. “Hey, give it back,” Jaehan snarls. “You don’t have to,” he says to Kris, frowning hard.

“If it weren’t for you, I never would have found Shixun,” Kris whispers, staring into Jaehan’s eyes. “It’s the least I could do.”

Shrugging, the thug walks away with his gang. Sehun smiles tenderly at Kris’ kind gesture, knowing for a fact that it is an admirable trait Kris shares with Kai.

“You don’t have to _pay_ me,” Jaehan grumbles they make their way to one of the hawker stands.

“I didn’t,” Kris says. “I was doing you a favour in return.” He smiles. “Is there, uh, any ATM around?”

“Yeah,” Jaehan points to the bank, which almost looks like a tea stall.

“I need to draw some money, too,” Sehun says as he hurries after Kris while Xiomara starts ordering a ton of food at every hawker stand she stops. “That was nice of you,” he mutters to Kris, who flashes a bright smile.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Sehun watches Kris struggle with punching the code after sliding the card in and frowns. “It must hurt a lot.”

“It’s not a stroll down the beach, no,” he says, his tone light and playful. Sehun wonders if he is happy that Shixun is back, but he must also be frightened to his stomach about everything.

The ATM machine is cramped in a very small space, which is barely enough for two fully grown men to stand in. “Your parents didn’t cancel your card, did they?”

“No. Thankfully,” he sighs, withdrawing the money. He then faces Sehun. “I wanted to ask you. How was I in the other fate?”

Sehun smiles at a fond memory of meeting Kris for the first time. “You were… nice. As you are now. Nothing much changed, to be honest. You loved Shixun unconditionally then and you still do now. You did bully me a couple of times, but I think it had something to do with the fact that I was your lover’s brother.”

“Oh, please don’t say lover,” Kris laughs. “It sounds so… serious.”

Sehun chuckles with him. “Okay. Paramour locked away in a fort, then?”

“He was locked away in a fort?” his eyes widen a little.

“Not really, but… he was very… how do I say this, troublesome?”

“Shixun? Troublesome?” he looks genuinely surprised.

“Very. He stood up to anyone he thought was unjust. He didn’t care if it was the world’s scariest villain.” Sehun smiles at another memory.

“I’d like to meet that Shixun,” Kris mutters, licking his lips.

“Yeah. Me too.”

“Why do you think… he came for Jayce?” Kris asks after a moment.

“I don’t know. We’ll get all the answers if we… get Shixun.”

“I can’t believe I let him go…” he raises his hand as if to run it through his hair, but drops it back to his side when he realizes it will only hurt. Sehun lifts his own hand to Kris’ head and cards it through his hair. Kris freezes, eyes fixed on Sehun’s. “I’m sorry,” he whispers.

“For what?”

“For… what happened in the room.”

“What?” Sehun retrieves his hand after stroking through Kris’ hair a couple of times.

Kris shakes his head. “No, nothing.” He steps out of the kiosk and makes his way back to the group. Sehun withdraws his own money before following him.

“What is this?” Kris asks when Xiomara hands him something fried on a skewer.

“Fried squid,” she says, dipping in a red sauce. Kris takes a bite of the fried squid that Xiomara offers. Jayce seems to be enjoying himself with a lotus pastry while Jaehan is on his phone, several feet away from them.

“Well, well, well. Look at what the wind swept in,” a familiar voice chimes and Sehun spins around to meet Amber grinning at him. “Sehun,” she says cordially. “I’m sorry about your brother. My father and I couldn’t be there.”

Sehun bows his head. “I was hoping to see you sooner or later, Amber.”

She is dressed in a dress shirt and a pair of black pants. Her hair is shorter than the last time Sehun had seen her, which is almost a year ago. Behind her are two boys, one with a pair of shades, clad in a simple white t-shirt and jeans. He has an arm slung over a scantily dressed blonde girl. He lowers his sunglasses to take a good look at Sehun. He is undoubtedly young, probably not older than 17.

“What brings you to Gawlreng?” Amber inquires, her eyes shooting to Jaehan, who joins them. “Kris, Xiomara, stranger,” she regards Kris, Xiomara and Jayce with a nod of her head along with a smile.

“We’re just passing by,” Kris says, taking another big bite of the fried squid from Xiomara’s hand.

“Where are you going, then?”

“Uh,” Sehun mumbles, looking to Kris. “It’s actually… a little complicated,” she sighs. “Could you not… tell our parents that we were here?”

Amber smirks and then laughs. “Oooh, this ought to be interesting. Honey, if they wanted to find you, they would have already. But is this something serious? Anything I can do to help?”

“Unless you can locate someone who travels through another dimension, then, no,” Sehun sighs. He notices how the boy at the back flinches. The one with the sunglasses.

“Ah… I’m afraid I can’t help with that,” her eyes dart to Xiomara, who is way too busy with the food to notice Amber’s hungry look. “Anyway, you’re welcome to stay here for as long as you like. Come by the house if you can.”

“No, thank you,” Kris says. “We should really… get going. Perhaps another time.”

“Good seeing you all again,” she turns around. “Oh, and I’m not sure about locating people who travel through dimensions, but if you want someone to manipulate someone’s Flair, you can enslave my friend Lucas here for a day or two. It’ll be a good riddance,” she says, patting on the shoulder of the boy with the sunglasses.

She is joking, but both Sehun and Kris perk up, eyes bulging out.

“See you around,” Amber winks before she starts to walk away. The boy in the leather jacket quickly pursuits after her, but Lucas stares elsewhere for a moment. Even through the sunglasses, Sehun could see he is staring at Jayce. He is checking out Jayce, who is trying everything he could to pretend like he hasn’t noticed the boy staring. Then pulling the blonde girl close with his arm around her neck, he deliberately gives the audience a show as he openly makes out with her before they turn around and walk away, still trying to swallow each other’s face. Jayce is staring at Lucas’ back now and he looks disgusted when Lucas slides a hand down the girl’s back and gropes her rear. Sehun thinks he hears Jayce hiss _‘jerk’_ under his breath as he returns to his food.

“Did she just say… he can manipulate Flairs?” Kris mutters breathlessly.

“That’s what she said,” Jaehan says. “Why?”

“Amber!” Sehun calls out, sprinting after her.


	7. For The Better

Silence hangs heavy between them. Amber’s eyes are boring into Sehun’s, filled with scrutiny and confusion. Behind her, Lucas has his arms crossed over his chest and eyebrows knotted at the bridge of his nose. Amber rises from her seat and starts to pace around the well-lit living room. Sehun distinctly remembers the sort of shabby place Amber used to call as her home in the other fate and compared to that hell hole, the house she currently lives in certainly speaks of her influence. Though it does not scream extravagance, it is a rather decent space.

“I _did_ hear that Kai had left home. The word’s already on the street. But… what do you mean he has gone rogue?” Amber asks, running a careless hand through her spiked and gelled hair. Sehun shifts uncomfortably on the couch and looks to Kris, who is aimlessly twiddling with the hem of his shirt. Jaehan had disappeared unannounced when Sehun and Kris were explaining their plight to Amber and Lucas a while ago. Sehun supposes he has gone home to check on his nephew and will be back shortly. Xiomara vacantly stares at Amber from a corner of the living room while Jayce sits on the floor next to the tiny cage holding his ferret captive.

“The last time we saw him… it was only for less than a minute,” Kris says with a sigh, flexing and clenching his hands. “He did… something to my hands and I haven’t been able to properly use my Flair since.” Sehun fights the urge to grab Kris’ bandaged hands with his own. He turns his attention to Amber instead.

“You said,” his gaze darts to Lucas, who cocks an eyebrow at him. “he can _manipulate_ Flairs? As in… any sort of Flair?”

Amber nods, pinning Lucas with a sidelong glance. “It wears him down with time and energy, but yes. He’s a little shit for it, though. Too cocky, are you not?”

Lucas snorts, rolling his eyes. “I can sort of take control of other people’s Flairs and manipulate them for a short period of time. Undoing them, blocking them, amplifying and reducing their intensity. But not for too long.” He walks over to Xiomara and stares into her unimpressed eyes with a small smirk forming on the corner of his lips. He gently curls his hand around Xiomara’s hand and lifts it. “Stunning,” he breathes out. Amber clears her throat, jaw clenched. “What can your Flair do?”

“Hurt your ass,” Xiomara mutters and Jayce immediately lets out a mocking chuckle, which earns him a scowl from Lucas.

“Well,” he brings Xiomara’s hand to a pot of plant by the window. “Hurt that plant.”

Xiomara fixes him a frown, but she goes for it without arguing. Though purple flames spark around the tips of her fingers promptly, the flames are stopped short with almost half an inch before the plant’s waxy leaf. Xiomara’s eyes widen and she gapes at Lucas, who grinning smugly at her. She rips her hand free from his grip.

“Show off,” Amber scoffs while Sehun stares at Lucas in awe.

“I can obviously do that on a bigger scale, but I don’t see how I can help you,” Lucas says, suddenly looking seriously confused and perhaps a little amused. “You guys are against a Recherché.”

“Once we’ve located Kai, do you think you control his Flair for a moment and make him… stay? Block his access to his Flair? Something like that. For a moment, at least,” Kris asks.

“Then what?”

Licking his lips, Kris glances to Sehun. “We need to talk to him,” Sehun says.

Lucas shakes his head. “You’re going to try to reason with someone who has apparently lost his mind and tried to kill you?”

“That’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Xiomara remarks.

“And you’re saying he travels via another dimension. I can’t manipulate a Flair without physical contact!”

“I’m certain he’ll show up again. Please, we are so lost. We could use your help,” Kris presses. “But… if you don’t want to… then, I guess we can’t force you.”

“You guys are fucking Recherchés and even _you_ couldn’t stop him. And you’re sure _I_ can help you?”

“We’re not sure, Lucas,” Sehun says. “But I think it’s a worth a shot.”

“And what if he ends up hurting me like whatever he did to your hands?” he shoots at Kris, who drops his eyes back to his hands, which Shixun had injured.

“Oh, come on,” Amber slaps the back of Lucas’ head. “Go be useful for once.”

“Easy for you to say! God knows what this group of noobs are _actually_ up to!” Lucas groans, shoving Amber away.

“I know these people, Luke. And it really seems like they’re quite in a pickle.”

While they bicker, Sehun drops his head, wondering if Lucas will be able to manipulate his Flair. What if Lucas could use his Flair to alter the destinies again? But whose destiny can Sehun possibly alter in order to put an end to this chaos while being absolutely certain that no other disaster will take place? He does not have the strength to confront a whole new set of calamity.

“All right, all right!” Lucas’ yawp ends the disagreement between him and Amber. “I’ll think about it! Okay? Stop yelling. Give me a moment to think about it. I’m not just gonna follow these people I have never even met before.”

Amber grins, patting on Lucas’ back before Lucas storms out of the house, slamming the door shut behind him. “He’ll help you and I will, too.” She grabs her a phone. “I can’t cook. But I’m a professional pizza picker.”

“Amber,” Sehun shoots up to his feet. “We can’t stay. We’re heading to Heathwell. We should already be on our way.”

“I see. I just thought you lot could use some rest. You all look like you’ve had a pretty sleepless night.” Her eyes momentarily flit to Xiomara and then back to Sehun again. “Say what. Why don’t you wash up and rest your spine for a beat? I’ll get some pizzas delivered and make yourselves at home. I’ll try to convince Lucas.”

No one refutes, though Sehun comes close to disagreeing. But he doesn’t. He is sure Lucas will be able to help them. This is brilliant. If Lucas agrees to it, they actually might have a chance. For the first time in what seems like forever, Sehun feels hopeful. They would not have met Lucas if it isn’t supposed to mean something. This is good. There is a sudden spark of hope within him.

 

* * *

 

“Does it poop a lot?” Xiomara asks, taking another big bite of the pizza slice while poking a finger into the cage.

“Around eight times a day,” Jayce mutters, smiling up at Xiomara. They are sprawled on the floor as they fill their stomachs with proper food. Kris had excused himself to take a brief shower only a minute ago.

“So it must have pooped by now, right?”

“Uh…”

“Gross.” She retrieves her finger from the cage. “Did you… let your family know that you’ve left home?”

“I left my mom a text,” he shrugs. “I told her I’m staying at a friend’s house for a couple of days. She wouldn’t care, anyway.”

Amber, Lucas and Jaehan have not returned, and Sehun gets more nervous by the second. He does not want to cause his friends any sort of distress, but they have all tagged along just to help him. Perhaps they are not ready to give up on Kai either and Sehun knows for a fact that Kris is definitely not turning back now that he knows Shixun is indeed alive. Even so, this is might put them all in danger they cannot foresee and it terrifies Sehun.

He looks to the hallway and draws a breath before pulling himself up to his full height. “Could you guys let me know when Amber’s back?” Sehun requests. Jayce nods his head, flashing a subtle grin.

Sehun stops at the door when he finds Kris struggling to take his shirt off in one of the guest rooms, which Amber said they could use. Kris has his back turned to Sehun as he tries to unbutton his shirt. Forcing a smile, Sehun knocks on the door and Kris spins around with a heavy sigh. He only has half of the buttons undone.

“This is taking forever,” he groans. Sehun saunters into the room and shuts the door.

“Can I help?” he does not wait for Kris’ answer as he starts unfastening Kris’ shirt buttons. Kris freezes after dropping his hands to his sides.

“Are… are they back?” he asks in a low murmur.

“No,” he lets out, lowering his eyes to the belt buckle, wondering if he should help with that as well. His fingers linger on Kris’ abs after undoing Kris’ shirt. “Uh,” he clears his throat and retracts his hands. “You’re all good.”

“Wait,” Kris lightly presses a hand to Sehun’s hip and Sehun looks up at him. Kris’ eyes are fixed on Sehun’s lips.

“Kris, I should—” he stops himself, bringing a hand to Kris’ cheek when Kris cocks his head and presses his hot lips to the side of Sehun’s neck. A shiver is sent down Sehun’s spine as he screws his eyes shut, silently panting to every firm kiss Kris plants on his neck. “K-Kris…”

Kris raises a rigid hand and only lightly cups a side of Sehun’s face while dragging his lips along Sehun’s jawline, his breath rough and laboured. “Fuck, I want you,” he moans in a ragged whisper, curling an arm around Sehun’s back to hold him close.

Sehun clenches his teeth when Kris grins his hard cock against Sehun’s hipbone while his lips work their way to the corner of Sehun’s lips. “Stop, Kris,” he rasps, though blood stirs in his loins with a feral urge swirling in his belly. He wants it, too. He wants to be touched, he wants to be with someone. He just wants to be loved even for a night, he wants someone to help him forget everything for a moment. But it should not be Kris. No matter how much he convinces himself it can be without strings attached.

He stumbles back and the calves of his legs slam into the footboard of the bed, knocking him over and he crashes against the bed with Kris collapsing above him. “Kris,” he gasps again as Kris desperately kisses and licks Sehun’s neck and collarbones. He pulls himself to his knees, planting them into the mattress, on either side of Sehun’s hips. “No, wait… ugh…” he throws his head back on the pillow and clutches a handful of Kris’ hair when Kris lowers his hips to grind their cocks together. The heat of the friction is unbelievably stunning. With just the fourth stroke, Sehun is left out of breath.

“Kris!” he cries, backhanding Kris in the face, which halts Kris immediately.

The scene instantly fades in a blink of his eyes and Sehun sucks in a sharp breath. Everything turns pitch black for a mere second and when sentience returns, he is in the living room again. He shoots up to his feet and violently looks around the living room with a beat of sweat trickling down his temple. Amber stares at him oddly.

“Whoa. No need for such a dramatic reaction, Asherton. I was just gonna order a pizza,” Amber says. Sehun blinks hard, gasping for air as he glances to everyone in the room.

“No,” he breathes out, trying to digest the situation. _What has happened?_ Only a second ago he was in the room… with Kris. Now, Kris is on the couch, gawking at him.

“Are you… all right?” Kris inquires with a concerned look.

Sehun wipes his forehead and shakes his head. “Amber, we must leave,” he says shakily. Did he unconsciously alter an insignificant portion someone’s destiny? It has happened before, but he has not gotten used to it. “We have to go to Heathwell. _Now_ ,” he declares. “We can’t wait for long. So, please. Please, talk to Lucas now. We’ll… we’ll wait in the parking lot.”

“Sehun,” Kris calls, but Sehun does not spare him another look. He does not plan to linger around Kris even for another second as he hurries out of the house. Yes, he might have let himself do things he would regret later with Kris, but he can’t. Kris is Shixun’s. And Kris is Kai’s brother.


	8. A Storm After Another

He tries to not to overthink it, but the images are so vivid as they are replayed on a loop in his mind. Nothing has happened. He has no reason to feel agitated. Nothing happened. Except that it _did_. If Sehun had not “unconsciously” altered either of their destinies, it would _have_ happened. No, it did happen. It did indeed happen and Sehun isn’t sure why he is so troubled about it. He isn’t the naïve little boy he was a couple of years ago. He has seen and undergone a lot. He doubts that sleeping with someone would bother him anymore, especially since he won’t be betraying anybody’s trust—he isn’t exactly in a romantic relationship with anyone. But that someone is Kris and Sehun would be betraying Shixun’s trust. Particularly now that he knows Shixun is not dead. A part of Sehun believes that he would have succumbed and yielded to the situation if it had even prolonged for a minute longer.

Kris had initiated it. Perhaps he misses Shixun. Perhaps he wanted to do it considering the fact that Sehun does look everything like Shixun. Sehun does not know why that only makes him feel worse and sick to the stomach. He does not want to be with Kris just as a substitute.

His heart clenches. Isn’t that what he had been doing to Kai? Hasn’t he been with Kai multiple times, considering Kai as a mere physical substitute to the other Kai he loves? His breath hitches silently. Kai must have felt just as horrible as he does, only several times worse since he was actually in love with Sehun.

“You have been awfully silent,” Amber says, dragging his attention away from his melancholic thoughts. She taps her fingers on the steering wheel of the SUV. In the backseat, Lucas is fast asleep, his mouth agape. Sehun volunteered to ride with Amber, not wanting to spend another moment with Kris in close proximity. He has let this go too far and to a very significant extent, has been a possible catalyst.

Jaehan and the rest are ahead of them on the road to Heathwell. The sun has started to set on the horizon and Amber loses her sunglasses, checking the rear-view mirror. “Everything all right?” she asks.

“Yeah,” Sehun mutters, glancing out the window. The path seems familiar, but it does not help him recall much. If this road and Jaehan are indeed leading them to the mansion, Sehun is not sure what he could gather from all of this. Why would Shixun be in that mansion? A mansion which Gwenna owned in the other fate. For some odd reason, he feels as though there is so much more than what he already knows. Of course, his brother has just come back to life after being brutally murdered right before his eyes. Of course, there is so much more than what he already knows.

“Look, we’ll help you. If you guys need more help, I can get you that, too,” Amber offers.

Sehun musters up a smile. “Thank you for doing this, Amber. You know I appreciate it a ton.”

“I’m kind of bored if I’m being honest. Besides, anything to help the Recherchés—shit!” she steps hard on the brake in a jolting abruptness and Sehun lurches forward before he is held back by the seatbelt.

“Holy fuck!” Lucas yelps at the back, gasping hard.

The car at the front has come to a halt as well and Kris is the first to bolt out of the car. Sehun follows suit immediately and his jaw falls slacking when he finds Donghae in the middle of the road, looking seriously pissed with his arms crossed over his chest.

“What the hell were you thinking?” he growls at Kris as Sehun walks over to his side. “And you took Xiomara with you!”

“What are you doing here?” Sehun inquires and Donghae pins him with a murderous look. “I told Mom that we’re fine and we will return. I told her not to look for us.”

“Yeah, she isn’t the one who’s looking for you,” Donghae spits, returning his attention to Kris. “What the hell are you up to?”

Sehun puts himself between Donghae and Kris. “I wanted to leave. Kris was just making sure I was safe.”

“Xiomara—” Donghae starts, but Sehun cuts him off.

“Is not a child anymore. She is completely fine, too.”

“I really am,” Xiomara says as she joins them.

“How did you even find us?” Kris asks Donghae, looking a little disappointed.

“It involved a Locator, obviously,” Donghae sighs. “Where are you going?” his eyes survey the entire group. “Where are _all_ of you going?”

Sehun glances to Kris. “Uh… Donghae, we’re—”

“No, you don’t get to talk,” Donghae hisses. “You.” he prods a finger into Kris’ chest. “What are you up to?”

“Ease up, man,” Kris groans, backhanding Donghae’s finger. “Wherever that we’re going is none of your business.” Sehun almost sighs from relief. He does not want Donghae to know, he does not want their family to know that they are going after Kai and now, Shixun, too. No one would be on their side. Especially since they all believe Kai is helpless now. Even his own parents have probably given up on him. They would all just try to stop them or convince them that they would take matters into their own hands.

“You’re going after your brother,” Donghae grunts, shaking his head. “Aren’t you?” His eyes drop to Kris’ hands. “What happened to your hands?”

“Long story. It’s all right, nothing big.”

“Amber, you too?” his eyes dart to Amber.

Amber simply shrugs with a nonchalance Sehun has always been envious of. “If it’s any comfort to you, I promise to keep a keen eye on them,” she says with half a smile.

“No need. You’re all going home right this instant.”

“No, we’re not,” Sehun spits. “I have had enough of you being such a dick to me.” He takes a step forward. “You’re a dick in every universe and the thing is you don’t have a reason to be! I am going after Kai and you are not going to stop me.”

Donghae wordlessly stares at him for a moment before looking over to Kris. “What he said,” Kris says in a low murmur, shrugging as he curls an arm around Sehun’s shoulders. Sehun refrains himself from shirking away from his touch.

“Xiomara, you have to come home, though,” Donghae states rather firmly. “Your father is worried sick about you and if you don’t go home this minute, he will have the entire ministry searching for you.”

Xiomara’s face crumples with discontent. “No,” she says. “I am not going anywhere.”

Letting out a loud audible breath, Donghae rubs his temples. “You guys are gonna get hurt.”

“We’re going to look for him, Donghae,” Kris tells him. “And we’ll be safe. None of us is a child here. Don’t worry. We’ll come home as soon as we can.”

“Xiomara’s still coming with me.” He grabs Xiomara’s arm. “Unless you want your father to break out in a rage. I’m not leaving until you go with me.”

Sucking in a sigh, Xiomara nods her head. “Fine. I’ll go with you. Just don’t stop _them_ ,” she pulls Sehun into a hug and whispers into his ear. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell them anything.”

Sehun tightens his arms around her before she pulls away. Sehun scowls at Donghae, though he knows the man means well. Donghae just has a funny way of showing his affection. “You guys have two days to come home,” Donghae says, pulling Xiomara to his side. “Then I’m coming for you.”

With that, he and Xiomara explode into swirls of black smoke before they disappear. “Who’s that control freak?” Jaehan asks when Sehun turns around to get back to the vehicle.

“Family,” Sehun mutters. “How much further to Heathwell?”

“Not far at all. We might get there before it’s dark.”

Sehun bows his head and starts towards Amber’s SUV, trudging past Jayce, who looks a little disturbed, probably by Lucas at his side. “So, your girlfriend’s gone,” Lucas snorts to Jayce, who pins him with a pathetic scowl.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” he murmurs and proceeds to get into the car.

“Oh, good.” Lucas licks his smirking lips.

“Sehun,” Kris calls, almost grabbing hold of Sehun’s wrist, but his fingers only manage to brush the wrist. Sehun clenches his eyes momentarily before turning around to face him. “What’s wrong?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve been acting rather distant since we left Amber’s place,” he says, frowning heavily. “Is everything… okay?”

Sehun swallows, shakily nodding his head. “Yeah, of course. Everything’s okay. Uh… We should… really get going.” He turns his back to Kris and weaves his way to the SUV.

“That’s disappointing,” Amber says when they are back in the SUV. “I was looking forward to getting to know her better.”

Sehun could not help but smile. “You should just stop by her place and ask her out. I think she likes being forthcoming and people who are so.”

Amber blinks at him as she shifts the gear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

* * *

 

“Where the hell are we?” Lucas asks in a low, husky voice when they stop at the end of the road. They exit the car and join Kris, Jaehan, and Jayce.

The road just ends at the edge of a dense forest, thick with trees. The moon is already visible in the salmon-coloured sky. “Well?” Kris says, turning to Jaehan, who is gripping Shixun’s concatenation chain in his hand.

“He is here,” Jaehan says with a sigh.

“In the woods?”

“No. I don’t know. Maybe,” he drops his head. “He can’t be living in the forest, right?”

“You think Kai lives in there?” Amber asks.

“Uh, no, Shixun,” Jaehan says and Kris scowls at him.

“Huh?” Amber stares at him vacantly. “Shixun? What do you mean?”

Sehun licks his lips, scanning the woods. He recalls the barrier around the mansion Gwenna used to have to prevent unwelcomed intruders from entering the compound. And the forest very much resembled the orchard that surrounded the mansion.

While the others fall into a discussion of whether to go back or not, Sehun ambles into the orchard.

“Sehun?” Kris lets out, but Sehun does not bother to respond as he proceeds forward. Within seconds, they are following him as well.

“We’ll cover more ground if we scatter around,” Amber suggests and upon agreement, they disperse into groups of two, each heading in different directions. “This is useless, Sehun,” Kris says when he catches up to Sehun. “You’re certain Gwenna’s mansion was here?”

“I sort of remember this place, Kris,” Sehun says just that before he picks up the pace of his strides. He might be walking in circles, but maybe Jaehan would pick something up in here. If only Sehun can get closer to the barrier, he could at least be certain that the mansion is here. But Gwenna is dead, so Shixun must be the one who is living there. These are all just theories, though. Theories which are driving Sehun half mad. He needs answers. All the answers.

“We’ll have to tell the others, Sehun. About Shixun,” Kris says after a moment of silence.

“I know, Kris,” he sighs. “And we will. After we have found them.”

“Maybe our parents can help.”

Sehun comes to a halt and spins around, meeting Kris’ eyes with a glare. “No, they can’t. They’re adults, remember? They won’t listen to us.”

“We’re sort of adults, too.”

“Not like them. They’re our parents and honestly, I’m really tired of depending on them.”

“Has it ever occurred to you that maybe Kai doesn’t want to be found?” His eyebrows are furrowing into a frown. “What if we find him and things turn out even worse?”

“You don’t want to find Shixun, then?”

“I do. And I think we’ll need more than this to help us find someone who’s supposed to be dead,” he spits through his clenched teeth.

Sehun fixes Kris with a stare for a long moment before looking away with a tight jaw. “You said you will help me. But if you’re having second thoughts, you’re welcomed to leave.”

“Stop,” Kris snarls, bringing his bandaged hands to the sides of Sehun’s face, rendering Sehun still. “Stop doing that. Stop thinking that I’m not on your side because I am, okay? And we’re a team.”

Sehun finds himself lost in Kris’ eyes, which look an awful lot like Kai’s. “Kris... We… can’t do this.”

Kris does not retrieve his hands from Sehun’s face. “I know,” he whispers, leaning closer and Sehun does not pull away. “Trust me, I don’t want to. But…” he lightly brushes Sehun’s hair as he clasps a side of his head. Sehun almost closes his eyes when their lips touch, but then Kris lets out a low guttural grunt, releasing Sehun’s face as his mouth falls agape, breaths rushing out at a hasty pace, and face is completely ashen. He silently gags as thick red blood begins to ooze from the corners of his lips.

“K… Kris?” Sehun exhales, eyes dropping to Kris’ chest as red begins to seep into the fabric of his shirt, spreading all over it. The sharp tips of a rusty metal are jutting out of his chest, dripping with blood. The world seems to darken around Sehun as the metal rod is drawn out of Kris’ back before Kris drops to his knees.

Within a few heartbeats, Kris drops to the ground, lifeless and covered in blood—eyes still open and unmoving. Sehun lifts his gaze, feeling like he might as well be dead or having the worst nightmare.

Kai, eyes as dark as night, stands before him, clutching the rod, soaked in Kris’ blood, in his hand.

Though Sehun wants to scream, cry out loud, he finds himself looking back to Kris on the ground, dead and motionless as a tear rolls down his cheek.

He is able to alter insignificant parts of destinies without even knowing it, so maybe he can alter this, too. But nothing is happening. Kris is dead. And Sehun is going to be next.

He looks up at Kai again and surrenders. “Kill me,” he manages to say in a small, shaky whisper, throat clogged with sobs. It will end the pain and grief quick. It will end the long suffering.

Much to his dismay, Kai drops the metal rod and smirks at Sehun. “Oh, I have far better plans for you, sweetheart.” His hand flies up to clutch Sehun’s neck and in the blink of an eye, black and darkness wash in, clawing at and blinding him.

A scream escapes Sehun’s lips, but he could hear nothing amid the nothingness as the dark engulfs him. He could not greet the Darkness Dimension like an old friend, though he is already familiarized with the setting.

Limbs clutch at him, pulling him back with brutal tugs. Sehun fights for a moment and struggles to free himself from the arms and hands of the souls trapped in the darkness. But after that moment, he realizes there is no real reason for him to fight. He will be lost forever in this dimension, but he is not strong enough to face the real one.

He lets his eyes close and surrender to the hands pulling him back. They flood and suffocate him until Sehun feels nothing.

That is when a strong grip on his forearm yanks him out and away from the souls, and before it registers to Sehun, he stumbles forward, crashing into a pair of arms and against a hard chest.

Though he could not hear his own heartbeat, he feels the other’s heart in his chest as the arms snake around his body, hugging him tightly. “Sehun,” a voice resonates within him while a set of cold lips brush his ear.

Sehun withdraws from the embrace and gapes at Kai, complete and real. “Ka—” he is instantly cut off when Kai cups his cheeks and kisses him, full on the mouth, catching Sehun’s lips between his own. Even in a dimension of nothingness, Sehun could feel the desperation and need in Kai’s kiss. It is him. It really is him. The warm Kai who used to smile at him, love him with everything that he had.

“You can’t stay here,” Kai says once he breaks the kiss.

“How am I… hearing you? What are you… what is happening?”

“Look. You need to get back to your body. If you stay for too long without an anchor, you’re gonna get lost,” Kai blurts out in a hurry.

“You killed… Kris,” Sehun lets out. “You killed Shixun!”

* * *

(Sketched by me lol)


	9. Enough is Enough

“I didn’t. Sehun, you know that _I_ didn’t.” he grabs Sehun’s hand and presses Sehun’s palm to his chest. “I swear. The last time you were here, I almost found you, but you went back before I could. Listen, I’m gonna _expel_ you back to reality. It is all that I can do. But before that, you must know something.” He takes hold of Sehun’s shoulders. “It’s _Arthur_ who’s inhabiting my body. His soul. I can’t find my way back. He’s not letting me. But I will be able to get back if he leaves the body even for a second.”

“Stop it!” Sehun pulls his hand away from Kai’s chest. “What is going on?!”

“You are in the Darkness Dimension! When you get back, you must return to the other fate, Sehun. And you _must_ kill Gwenna.”

Sehun could not help but stare at him. For some reason, he is able to clearly discern Kai in the darkness. “Huh?”

“Look, you don’t have the time to freak out right now. So, just try to digest everything that I’m gonna tell you without cross-questioning me, understand?”

Sehun blinks. “Are you crazy? You’re… trapped in the Darkness Dimension?”

“Yes! Look around you. There is no way out for me, but _you_ can still get back. Gwenna _is_ alive. I saw her. She’s the one who’s behind all of this. She’s the one who’s behind all of this! She can travel through all dimensions. This might sound absolutely insane.”

“You’re right. It does,” Sehun says, unsure of whether he is out of breath or not because he is having a hard time to even listen to what Kai is saying. _Kai_. Trapped in a dimension he fears the most.

“She’s planning to take control of all the Cataclysmic Dimensions, Sehun. To become the most powerful being in existence.”

“She’s… alive? How…” he stops himself for a second. “Shixun is alive, too. I don’t understand.”

“She already has control over the Afterworld Dimension, which means she can expel souls trapped in that dimension, I mean dead people, and throw them back into reality. That’s how she brought Shixun’s soul back, but not exactly his spirit. She can control his mind and she would do the same with Kris. And probably the rest of us. Her personal army. She saw what would happen if you altered Grace’s destiny. God knows if she has already altered fates several times before. It doesn’t matter. She needed to get to Arthur’s soul, which wasn’t in the Afterworld Dimension. My guess is that perhaps Grace knew where Arthur was locked up in the other fate. She manipulated you into altering Grace’s destiny, knowing very well what might happen if you did. She sees fragments of the future, remember? This way, she could also get her hands on my Flair and take control of the Darkness Dimension. She can control Arthur’s mind and he alone has the Flair to enter someone else’s body. It’s only a matter of time until she has full access to the Darkness Dimension as well.”

Sehun clings onto Kai’s arms in a frenzy. “Slow… down. I don’t… understand. Gwenna is… dead…”

“No, she isn’t. I need you to trust me. What happened the last time you went back?”

“Gwenna was… I don’t know. Grace had her locked away.”

Kai nods his head considerately. “Okay. That must have been why she timely made you alter Grace’s destiny. There might still be hope.”

“Wh-what do you want me to do?!”

“If you could kill me, kill my… body, Arthur would be forced to leave. He cannot inhabit a lifeless body. You would be killing _him_.”

“What?! No!”

“No, listen. I think I will be able to take my body over if he left. But that’s a huge risk. Besides,” he swallows before continuing. “Kris will still be gone. Shixun, too. And it will be a long ass fight with Gwenna and the chances of us winning is rather slim, now that she already has control over most of the Cataclysmic Dimensions.”

“What the hell are the Cataclysmic Dimensions?! No two dimensions can exist simultaneously.”

“Actually, no two similar dimensions can exist simultaneously. Like this world won’t exist when you’re in the other fate. And the Cataclysmic Dimensions… uh, someone else can explain that to you. We’ve no time. Sehun, right now, I need you to do something else.” he takes Sehun’s hands into his own and presses their foreheads together. “Try to undo Grace’s destiny and go back. For some reason, she can’t get into my head in the other destiny and probably only Grace knows where Arthur is locked away.”

Sehun tries to swallow everything that is divulged to him, but his head feels too heavy. “Gwenna was…trapped in the Darkness Dimension in the other fate. You didn’t find her…”

“She can travel through dimensions. “I could alter Gwenna’s destiny if I could just—”

“We can’t guarantee that it won’t turn out to be any worse. Besides, she will see it coming and her soul could remain in a new fate, too.”

Sehun is not even sure if he is completely following Kai, but he gets the picture. “I can’t… Kai, I don’t have control over my Flair, anymore.”

“I know… I know. You could find Shixun,” Kai mutters calculatedly. “But… it’ll take forever.”

“Where is he?”

“I don’t know. Gwenna sends him to run some errands. Find some Flairers that would help her.”

Sehun’s eyes widen. “Like Jayce?”

“Yeah. The Unikinetic Flairer. How do you know him?”

“So, that’s not a coincidence…”

“Forget about that. She’s after more Flairers. Powerful Flairers. Sehun, you have to find a way.”

Sehun shakes his head. “I can’t, Kai. Kris is… dead. I don’t know what’s happening anymore and honestly, I just want to… give up. This is… too much for me to handle.”

Kai licks his lips, taking a step back. “I’m sorry, Sehun,” he mutters. “I should never blame you. I… It was selfish of me to ask you to love me, to pester you like that. I apologize. And I thank you for… everything,” he smiles faintly. “When compared to all the shit that’s happening right now… I can’t believe I made you miserable by forcing you to _like_ me.”

“I _do_ like you, Kai. And I’m gonna do whatever I can to get you out of here.”

“No, you can’t. Let’s face it, Sehun. Nothing is better in this fate. Especially for you. So, for once, stop being so selfless, stop sacrificing your own happiness.” He takes Sehun’s face in his hands. “Start believing that this is _your_ story. Go back. And fucking kill that bitch.”

“What about… you?”

Kai’s lips stretch into a miserable smile. He tilts his head and presses a soft kiss to Sehun’s lips. “I guess I’ll see you in the other fate. Only… older. Just… promise me you’ll tell me everything about how much I loved you.”

“You… already know,” Sehun whispers.

“Now, go be a hero, Sehun,” he mutters against Sehun’s lips and splaying a hand over Sehun’s chest, he shoves him back.

Sehun loses his footing and falls back. With a sharp gasp, he jolts upright, eyes flinging open to meet Jaehan and Amber. The latter’s fists are glowing like a red-hot lava. “What happened?” Amber asks without the usual humour in her voice.

Sehun hastily looks over to Kris’ dead body on the ground and finds Jayce sobbing uncontrollably over him. Lucas has an arm draped around Jayce’s body, looking like he might throw up.

Jaehan rises to his feet, palming his forehead. “Shit,” he lets out.

Sehun crawls over to Kris and gently forces Kris’ eyes shut before pressing a kiss to Kris’ forehead. He drops to sit on the ground, wrapping his arms around his legs. Hugging his knees to his chest, Sehun vacantly stares at Kris lifeless body. Tears flows down his cheeks, unchecked.

_Gwenna. Alive._

_Kai. Trapped._

_Kris. Dead._

Should Sehun even believe what Kai had told him? Should he even believe that it was actually Kai? What if this is just another manipulation? Who should he even trust? He should blame himself for all of this. If only he hadn’t altered Grace’s destiny in the first place. If only he had just killed himself a long time ago. If only he was never born.

How could anyone live with so much burden in their chest? He feels hollow and full of grief all at once. How does one survive this?

Sehun has never wanted any of this. He wanted to be normal, he wanted what all the boys his age had. He did not want to be a Freak. He never wanted to be centre of such a catastrophe. He never wished for any of this. And yet, this is all his fault.

How can Gwenna be alive? Why should Sehun even believe Kai? What should he believe, anymore?

Sehun clasps his hands to the sides of his head and lets out a painful cry, gritting his teeth together. “Sehun,” Jaehan calls, crouching beside him. “Hey, hey.”

“Don’t,” Sehun hisses with a ferocity that stops Jaehan in his attempt to calm him down. What should he do now? What is left for him to do now? Sehun stands up and wipes the corners of his watery eyes. Where the hell can he go to now? What will happen if he went back? He isn’t even sure if it would be his home again. He fears that he would not fit in that fate, anymore. And he definitely does not fit in here. So, where would he go? Which world would not torment him like this? Why does this misery never end?!

_Think, think, think._ Sehun screws his eyes shut and sucks in a breath.

“We need to call somebody,” Amber says while Jayce continues to sob.

“Lucas,” Sehun rasps, turning to the boy. “I… need you to help me with something.”

“What are you doing?” Jaehan asks when Sehun yanks Lucas up by the arm.

“You can wield my Flair, yes?” he questions Lucas, who blinks blankly. “Which means _you_ can control it even if I can’t?”

“I… I… guess? Why?” Lucas mutters, looking confused.

Sehun rubs his forehead, letting out a sigh. “Here’s the thing. I don’t have control over my Flairs. I can only try to trigger them, but often they either spiral out of control or they don’t work at all.”

“Sehun, what are you doing?” Amber demands, but Sehun ignores her.

“Where are you going with this?” Lucas says.

“Can you help me control it if I trigger it?”

“What… _are_ you trying to trigger?”

“I can turn all of this around. I can… change what has just happened. I just need you to control my Flair while I work on it. I’m not sure if this will work, but I have a strong feeling it could.”

“You can… prevent all of this from happening?”

“Yes… I think I can.”

Lucas exchanges a brief glance with Amber.

“We must hurry, though. Before something else goes wrong,” Sehun insists.

“I would help, of course. But I can only wield Flairs that don’t take too much toll on my energy. I can’t do much if the Flair has more to do with your mind than your physique. I won’t have the energy.”

“I can help,” Jayce says, sniffling hard as he rises to his full height.

“How?” Sehun asks.

“Uh,” he mutters and lowers his head as though he is embarrassed. “I can… draw energy from cosmic forces and sort of project it onto others, too. I have done it before.”

Sehun shakily nods his head. “You’re sure you can do that?”

“It’s not like I can draw a lot of power at once, but… I can do it. And hopefully it’ll be enough,” he glances back to Kris and his eyes glistens with tears again. “Please bring him back.”

Sehun wants to tell Jayce that he cannot bring Kris back. But there isn’t time for that. He needs to escape his own hell before grief gets its claws on him.

Jayce takes hold of Lucas’ hand as Lucas grabs Sehun’s.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Amber yawps, cutting in. “What on earth are you doing?!”

“Amber, just a minute. I’ll explain everything in a minute,” Sehun lies, but it gets Amber to back off, though not without scepticism.

Then letting out a heavy breath, Sehun nods towards Lucas and Jayce before closing his eyes. He focuses on activating his Flair and undoing the alteration on Grace’s destiny. Lucas’ hand tightens around his and Sehun feels it trembling a little.

_Please, please, please, let this work._

Lucas squeezes his hand, almost crushing it when he drops to his knees, dragging Jayce down with him. “Lucas?” Jayce calls and Sehun snaps his eyes shut again.

“No, no, keep going,” Lucas urges. “I’ve got it.”

Sehun lets out a sharp gasp, brought down to one of his knees. Black begins to ooze into his head, filling every corner with its nothingness. He sucks in a breath and focuses on Gwenna’s destiny before he had meddled with it.

“Lucas,” Sehun exhales, gripping his hand.

“Go on,” Lucas harrumphs.

Whatever that he is doing, Sehun could feel it in his veins, pounding with vigour. He is only thinking, _concentrating_. Lucas is the one who is executing it. Sehun wonders if they succeeded, would Lucas be aware of him jumping to another fate? Would Sehun?

He would be destroying a lot of people’s lives if he did this. He would be destroying his mother’s life. He would be thrusting everyone’s life back into that chaotic horror.

It would still be better than _this_.

Sehun clenches his teeth and strains his brain until he is completely out of breath. Something hot and thick trickles down his nose and rolls over his lips.

There is a sense of finality when his consciousness is punched down into an oblivion of black.


	10. Restoration

Sehun’s eyes fling open to the sunlight pouring through the window of the room. His room… back in FLAC. The darkness has ebbed like night at dawn. He squints at the brightness before clenching his eyes to shut it out.

“You’re not going to stop me, Sehun,” he hears Kai’s voice and for an instant, he almost smiles at the rawness of the voice that echoes in his head, but then he hears footsteps on the floor. “Why do you have your eyes closed?”

Sehun cracks them open and gawks at Kai, devastatingly stupefied. His jaw falls slacking as his heart leaps up to his throat when he finds Kai standing inches away from him, sporting a perplexed frown on his eyebrows. It feels like a lifetime ago since the last time he had seen Kai in the flesh, alive and breathing right before his eyes. The room spins around him for a torturous moment as he tries to swallow the sight before him. Is this real? Is this a dream? How? What has happened…? Sehun tries to focus on his breathing, but the memories and images that surge into his mind unchecked robbed him of his breaths. His knees almost buckle when he harks back to the scene where Kris’ chest was impelled and Sehun wasn’t able to do anything to help him.

Kai… The Darkness Dimension… Gwenna.

“Sehun. Are you… okay?”

“Kai,” he spits out with his eyes bulging out with a shock that spreads painfully across his chest. He has failed. He didn’t alter Grace’s destiny. It must have gone all wrong. He must have managed to tweak someone’s destiny if he’s back here. “Oh, my god, Kai!” he exhales, crossing the distance between them and throws himself onto Kai, wrapping his arms around Kai’s neck.

Kai’s arms hesitantly snake around Sehun’s waist. “Uh… Sehun?”

Sehun pulls back to gape at Kai and clasps his hands to the sides of Kai’s face. “Oh, god. Oh, god. You’re actually here.” He leans forward to squeeze Kai in another tight embrace. His eyes sting with tears as he clutches Kai’s hair at the nape of his neck, pressing his lips into Kai’s shoulder. His gaze then flits to the packed bag on Kai’s bed and the situation finally registers to him.

“I’m not going to change my mind, Sehun. I should go. And… please, don’t try to stop me,” Kai says, withdrawing himself from Sehun’s arms.

“No!” Sehun grabs Kai’s shirt by the chest to prevent him from backing away. Everything spiralled out of control when Kai left. This is the consequential point where Sehun could have done something to turn everything around.

“Sehun—”

“No!” he gasps, clutching Kai’s shirt harder. “You can’t leave. You’re not going anywhere!”

“What is wrong with you? You suddenly care about whether I stay or leave?”

“I’ve always cared, Kai!”

“No. You cared about the other me,” he scoffs, rolling his eyes before tearing Sehun’s hand off his shirt. Sehun grabs him by the shoulder again when he starts to turn his attention to his bag.

“Stop!” he yaps. “Please, Kai. You can’t leave. Just hear me out for a second!”

“Why should I? Sehun, I’m not going to be any good for anyone if I stuck around. Trust me, Sehun. No one needs me here.”

“ _I_ need you here,” Sehun blurts out. He tries to recall what had driven Kai into leaving in the first place. After telling the truth to Grace and Faiion, Sehun had told Kai about seeing him in the other fate.

“I don’t need you saying such things just so that I won’t leave, Sehun. Besides, what is it to you, anyway? I stay, I leave, nothing changes for you, Sehun. Except that you would be in less danger if I left.” He turns to his bed once again and Sehun starts to pant a little with his heart sinking to his stomach. Though this is all too much to take in at the moment, he can’t stop to take a breath. Not now. Kai _can’t_ leave. Sehun must stop him one way or the other.

“Wait, Kai. Please, please,” he begs, gasping for air. “Can you wait for one minute and listen to what I’ve got to say.”

“No, Sehun.”

Clenching his jaw, Sehun seizes hold of Kai’s arm before grabbing a side of his head, fisting his hair. He can’t lose Shixun again. He can’t lose Kris. And he sure as hell can’t doesn’t want to lose Kai all over again. He still has the power to alter Grace’s destiny, but this is better. It probably is. If Kai was telling him the truth, this is the best path for Sehun to stop Gwenna, though Sehun still has a difficult time digesting that information. He wants it all to end. And he needs Kai by his side for that.

“I wasn’t joking or lying when I said I want us to be boyfriends, Kai,” he says in a haste. “I wouldn’t just say it if I didn’t feel anything for you. And you’re being a little unfair. I was in love with _you_. It _is_ you whether you want to accept it or not. Leaving is not going to solve anything.”

Kai grips his jaw. “What are you trying to do, Sehun? You do realize that you just _cannot_ make me stay no matter what you try, don’t you?”

Sehun draws in a deep breath and yanks Kai’s hair before ramming their lips together. Without allowing Kai a single second to breathe, Sehun delves his tongue into Kai’s mouth, but freezes when Kai pulls back, cupping a corner of Sehun’s jaw. His baffled stare bounces from Sehun’s pleading eyes to Sehun’s parted lips. Then with a furious tug, Kai hauls Sehun close until there is no space for air to pass between their bodies and smashes Sehun’s lips with his own. There is absolutely no remorse or mercy in the way Kai kisses him. Sehun struggles to kiss him back and breathe at the same time through the fiery kiss.

They stumble over to Sehun’s bed, which hasn’t been slept on for days, and Sehun shoves Kai onto it before straddling his hips. Kai props himself up on his elbows to reconnect their lips while Sehun’s hands desperately fumble with their shirts. Pulling them off, they discard them on the floor and Sehun pushes Kai to lie down, kissing him harder as their tongues swirl around one another with their saliva lubricating their lips. Kai’s rapidly hardening cock is pressed up against Sehun’s ass and he moans into Sehun’s mouth when Sehun gently rocks his hips forward, grinding his ass against Kai’s erection.

Kai breaks the kiss to drag his lips along Sehun’s shoulder and collarbone, trailing them with his tongue. Sehun wilts at Kai’s hot breath grazing his skin and the way Kai’s fingers tremble on his back as they wend their way lower to the waistband of Sehun’s pants.

He then flips Sehun onto the bed and mounts him, pressing a knee between Sehun’s legs to nudge into his crotch while claiming Sehun’s lips again. Sehun clutches Kai’s hair with one hand and undoes the fly of Kai’s pants with the other. Pushing Kai back onto the mattress, Sehun climbs on top of him and kisses his way down Kai’s chest and abs before licking up the thin trail of hair at the base of his arching cock.

“Sehun,” Kai lets out with his eyes rolling back and hand fisting Sehun’s hair. “You… don’t have… to.”

Sehun climbs back up to kiss Kai full on mouth. “I want to,” he rasps against Kai’s lips before slithering down Kai’s body again.

“Fuck,” Kai hisses when Sehun prods the tip of his tongue into the slit of Kai’s cockhead. “God, fuck!” he growls as Sehun continues to tongue the slit, licking off the precome. Kai tightens his grip around Sehun’s hair as Sehun sinks in, wrapping his lips around Kai’s cock. He goes as far as his mouth could manage and Kai’s swollen shaft is slamming into the back of his throat. Sehun sucks harder as Kai’s coarse moans louden and the clutch on Sehun’s hair tightens. Sehun’s spit dribbles down the hard member and he pulls back to lick along the underside of Kai’s cock, all the way up to the slit again.

“Sehun… I’m going to… come,” Kai gasps as Sehun circles his tongue over the tip of his cock.

“Then come,” he pants out before sucking him again. He doesn’t pause until Kai has gone completely red with his scorching tanned body sheening with sweat. He bucks his hips up and thrusts up into Sehun’s mouth before bursting inside the warm cavern, shooting his come right down Sehun’s throat.

Sehun swallows as Kai cups a side of his face and pulls him up to kiss his mouth. Sehun then drops on the bed beside him to catch his breath with a hand resting on Kai’s chest.

Carding his fingers through his sweaty hair, Kai lets out a heavy sigh. “What did we just do,” he exhales.

“Kai,” Sehun lifts his head up with a frown. “Please. Don’t leave me. I… I don’t think I… I can do this any further. I need you. And I know it’s a chaos. But we’ll get through it together. I want you.”

Kai closes his eyes for a minute, drawing in steady breaths. He then curls his arm around Sehun to pull him down to lie with him. “I love you, Sehun. And I need you to stop hurting me.”

Sehun fights the tears that well up in his eyes. “I never meant to hurt you, Kai.”

“I know. But it just hurts so much.” He presses a hand to Sehun’s cheek and Sehun’s heart aches at the sight of Kai’s misery in his gaze. “Please tell me you didn’t… do this just so that I’d stay.”

“I’m not that low, Kai,” Sehun mutters. “I want you to stay because I don’t want to lose you. And… there’s something else you need to know.”


	11. Turning Back

The faint remnants of the sun dribble through the dusty window of the room as night continues to eat the daylight away. Sehun realizes he hasn’t felt this rested in a long time. For a moment, lying there in Kai’s arms, watching the day fade away outside, everything appears to be orderly, as it should be. He thinks about the life of a normal teenager, resting in the arms of his boyfriend after a long, taxing day at school. They’d order in pizza later for dinner and watch some corny movies before going to bed.

Why is this his responsibility? Why should any of this be put on his shoulders? Why should saving the world from tumbling into chaos be his calling? Why can’t someone else do it? Because he’s a Recherché? Because he alone has the power to do something about it?

He flexes his hand, surveying his palm lines before splaying it over Kai’s chest. Let this not be a dream, he prays.

“The Cataclysmic Dimensions,” Kai huffs as his fingers aimlessly play with the strands of Sehun’s hair. “I’ve never really heard of them.”

“Me neither,” Sehun hums, tracing the cleft of Kai’s chest with his forefinger.

“So, Kris died. Shixun, too. I killed them. And I was trapped in the Darkness Dimension. All this happened because I left.”

“Yes,” he murmurs against Kai’s neck.

“Here’s what we know. Gwenna’s alive. Grace is a preferable villain than Gwenna. In the other fate, Gwenna tricked me into letting her into the Darkness Dimension, from which she travelled to the other dimensions, because she can do that.”

“Yes.”

“Arthur could be watching us right now. Talk about fucked up families.”

Sehun raises his head to scowl at Kai. “Way to ruin a moment.”

Kai smirks, pulling Sehun down back to the bed. “What else happened?”

“I… almost kissed Kris,” he admits and Kai lifts his head, arching a curious eyebrow.

“You what?”

“Almost,” Sehun adds. “It didn’t happen. It was at a moment of weakness. And… I was kind of admiring Jaehan. Again, nothing happened.”

Kai snorts and turns to stare at the ceiling again. “You tried to go back to the other fate, but ended up here instead.”

“At least I have full control over my Flair and Shixun and Kris are alive. You’re still sane.”

“Hardly,” Kai sighs. “I’m worried to even let my eyes close. I keep hearing my own voice contradicting my thoughts.” He pauses. “Why am I stronger in the other fate?”

“My guess is you were older, more experienced, you trained your body and mind to be untraversable. You knew a lot of things.”

“Translation—I’m an amateur noob now.”

Sehun chuckles and nuzzles against Kai’s shoulder. “You’re not so bad.”

“How did you end up here?”

“It happens,” Sehun says. “Sometimes, I change something in a destiny, and it shoves me back to a time when important events happened. Like… life-changing events. It’s not time-travelling because I always seem to have the power to alter the events, so that they won’t happen again. It’s like… this turning point in someone’s destiny which I can personally manipulate. I’m still trying to figure it out. Kai,” he props himself up on his elbow. “Gwenna will try to get you one way or another,” he says. “What do we do now?”

Kai sits up, pulling away from Sehun with a sudden glum look crumpling his face. “I think the answer is sitting right in front of our faces,” he mutters, scrubbing his face with his palms.

“I’m not going to alter Grace’s fate again, Kai,” Sehun says sternly, even though that is precisely what Kai had told him to do when he had met him in the Darkness Dimension.

“What other choice do you have?” Kai sighs. “Face it. We won’t be able to catch Gwenna, let alone defeat her. We still have the upper hand here. You can still use your Flair. You said you were already with Grace in the other fate. So, go to her. And… I can’t fuck things up in that fate either.”

“But things are already so fucked up, Kai.”

“All that you ever wanted was to go back, but now you don’t?” he asks with a lour.

Sehun sits up and grabs his shirt from the floor before putting it on. “What if I went back and things turn crazy shit again?”

“We’ll just have to take that chance,” Kai says, frowning deeply. “Sehun, I need you to understand. I don’t know for how long I’ll be able to keep this up. For how long I’ll stay sane. I’m going to be more of a hindrance for you, a bigger pain in the ass. But in the other fate, I might actually be able to help you.”

Sehun rises from the bed as his eyebrows pull together in a familiar form of misery that bubbles in his chest. “There must be something else that we can do.”

“No, there isn’t,” Kai jolts up to his feet and fastens the fly of his pants. “How can you guarantee that Shixun will be safe? Because the minute he’s harmed, you’ll lose the one chance we have at making everything better.”

Sehun frowns. “What if… what if I tried to alter Gwenna’s destiny now?”

“And? You said her soul will be carried to the other fate and that she’d see it coming. Changing her destiny will not change her motives. God forbid if she already knew this was going to happen, too.”

“I… could try to change yours.”

Kai blinks this time. “And risk everything?” he scoffs. “What if that lands you in a much different fate? Do you wanna restart it all? What if you have something to do with my destiny and altering it expels you from my life?”

“I think you having a good life is more important than me being in it,” Sehun says, though failing to sound convincing.

Kai let out a breathy scoff, shaking his head. “Sehun Asherton, ever the self-sacrificing man.”

“I’m serious, Kai.”

“Who gives you the right to alter people’s destinies in the first place?”

Sehun flinches, slightly taken aback by Kai’s tone. “Why are you shouting?”

“I’m not shouting, I’m trying to make a point. If you hadn’t fucked things up with manipulating destinies, we wouldn’t even be here and you wouldn’t have so many regrets.”

“I was trying to do the right thing.”

“Well, which part of this is _right_ , Sehun?”

Sehun purses his lips, staring at Kai in silence for a moment. “So, what?” he croaks out. “You want me to realter Grace’s destiny and go back?”

“I want you to put an end to this, seeming that only _you_ can do it. While you still can. I could lose my mind at any moment, Gwenna could get to us the instant she notices something’s amiss.”

Sehun nods his head, dropping it. “You wanted me to go back when I saw you in the Darkness Dimension, too.”

“That’s because it’s our only way out of all this. You have support in the other fate. More than in this. Here, no one is going to even believe us. We have no proof. And Grace will never believe that her beloved sister is a wretched witch that wants to take over the universe.”

Sehun clenches his eyes for a minute, drawing in a few steady breaths. “I’m not some toy to be tossed around like this. You in the other fate want me to leave and here, you want me to leave again. Don’t you see that _I’m_ the one who’s being played like an instrument jumping from fate to fate?!”

“Which is why I want it to stop,” Kai says, cupping Sehun’s face. “We’ll find our way back to each other. We always do, don’t we?”

“Each time I’m forced to part ways with you, it only gets harder, Kai,” he whispers with tears threatening his eyes. “I never know what to expect the next minute. Why can we never catch a break?”

“In this cosmic pandemonium, we should be glad that we even had this much to start with,” Kai laughs humourlessly and tilts his head to brush their lips together. “Tell me honestly. I know that you’ll be able to find a soft spot in your heart for me. But how does it compare to the way you feel about me in the other fate? It’s not even relevant right now, considering the colossal mess we’re in. This is for all the marbles. One last time, Sehun. I need you to keep fighting for a little longer. Don’t give up just yet.”

Sehun pants as he draws away. “Okay,” he mutters. “Okay, if that’s what you want.”

“It’s not about what I want,” he says and frowns when Sehun refuses to hold his hand. “It’s about making the smart move.”

“And if things are worse in the other fate?”

“Well, you know how to come back, don’t you? Or… you can just alter your own destiny, live a better life,” he says and steps forward to caress Sehun’s cheek. “But you won’t do that, will you?”

“Probably not,” Sehun mutters and lowers his gaze. “When you come to think of it, it’s only fair for me to want all the things others have. Happiness, the right to love freely.”

Kai kisses his forehead. “And you have to believe you’ll get them. Good people are always rewarded.”

“I’m not so sure about that.” He halts for a moment, squeezing Kai’s hands in his, staring into Kai’s dark eyes.

“You ready?” Kai asks softly, freeing one hand to rest it on Sehun’s hip.

“Will saying goodbye only make it harder?”

Kai smiles. “I think you should own goodbyes by now.”

“True,” Sehun sighs and hugs Kai, pressing his face against Kai’s shoulder. “Don’t go chasing that Ren when I’m gone.”

Kai laughs against Sehun’s neck. “I think the older me loves him more, though.”

“And I’ll be sure to punish you in the other fate for that.”

“ _Now_ you have to get all kinky?” Kai groans and Sehun chuckles softly. “I hope we’ll never have to say goodbyes again.”

“I hope so, too,” Sehun whispers and slams his eyes shut.

 

* * *

 

The coldness is the first thing that registers to him when he opens his eyes. He is met with the pitch blackness of the night as he stands facing the window of the unfamiliar, shabby room. Sehun cocks an eyebrow and looks down at his hands that are holding onto a button of his half-unbuttoned shirt.

He turns around to scan the room. It looks like a cheap motel room.

“They got a vending machine. So, I got you a soda,” a man says as he enters the room, startling Sehun out of the blue.

He blinks at the stranger, quickly buttoning his shirt up. The man shuts the door and locks it, scratching his beard and pulling his biker jacket off. “Who the hell are you?” Sehun grates, scowling hard.

The man looks at him with a confused expression wrinkling his face. “Very funny. Come on, let’s get down to business.”

Business.

Sehun scrutinizes his calloused hands and frowns. He then turns to the mirror to check his scorching red hair sticking out everywhere. Bloody hell. Why is the Sehun in this fate always making horrible fashion choices… He groans and grabs the jacket from the bed, which he believes must be his since it is too small to fit the big rider hunk.

“What the fuck, are you bailing?” the man spits when Sehun beats for the door. “What’s wrong? You looked like you really wanted to get laid a moment ago.”

Sehun stops in his tracks and uncomfortably faces the man. “Where… are we?”

The man raises an eyebrow. “Are you stoned?”

“Never mind,” he says and hurries out of the room. He hears a string of obscene noises coming from the rooms nearby. How on earth did he land in this shady piece of rathole?! And with a fucking biker dude?!

As he races down the stairs, he realizes he’s wearing the gold chain around his neck. Oh, thank god. At least the world isn’t exactly ending at the moment in this fate.

He just needs to figure out where the hell he is and why he’s being propositioned by a filthy dreg of society.

He comes to a halt when he spots Chanyeol in the lobby, flipping through what looks like a century old magazine. He blinks for a moment, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks at him. He almost doesn’t recognize Chanyeol with that new hairstyle and he looks like he must have put on a ton of muscles.

“Oi! You better get your perky ass back up there or I’ll fuck you to the floor where you’re standing!” the biker guy roars when he shows up on the stairs. “Do you think you’re gonna waste my time like that?”

Sehun groans and rolls his eyes. “Chanyeol!” he caws, turning to Chanyeol again.

Chanyeol brings his head up and scowls at Sehun, deliberately dropping his gaze back to the magazine.

“Bitch,” the biker dude hisses, climbing down the rest of the stairs.

“Chanyeol!” Sehun cries again and sprints towards his friend.

Noticing the distress in Sehun’s expression, Chanyeol rises to his feet and gasps when Sehun runs into his arms, pouncing on him.

“Oh, my god,” Sehun pants, hugging his friend like his life has finally returned to him.

“What are you doing?” Chanyeol snarls. “I thought you ditched me to spend the night with this kind gentleman?”

Sehun pulls back and laughs at Chanyeol, his eyes welling up with tears. “I can’t believe it. You’re actually here.”

Chanyeol glowers. “What is wrong with you? Why are you acting strange?”

Sehun realizes he is blocking his mind. The instant he brings the mental walls down, Chanyeol is able to read his mind and his jaw falls slacking.

A strong grip on his arm causes him to hiss at the biker guy. “Hey,” Chanyeol spits, shoving the man back, curling a protective arm around Sehun’s shoulders. “Fuck off. He’s mine.”

After a moment of grumbling and a few rude gestures, the biker guy stomps away. “Oh, my god. You have no idea how pleased I am to meet you,” Sehun chuckles, wrapping his arms around Chanyeol again.

Chanyeol doesn’t reply as he gently embraces Sehun in a warm hug. “Shit,” he breathes at last.

“I know,” Sehun says, pulling back. “Where’s Kai?”

“Hold on a moment,” Chanyeol grabs Sehun’s face with both hands and stares into his eyes. After a minute, he draws away, mouth gaping wide. “This can’t be real.”

“This is real,” Sehun rasps. “Chanyeol, where is Kai? Grace? Shixun? Faiion?”

“You don’t… remember anything?”

“If I did, you’d know.”

Chanyeol palms his forehead, outstaring Sehun like he is met with a ghost. “Calm down. I don’t know where they are.”

“What? Why are we here?”

“You… ran away.”

“With _you_?”

Chanyeol scowls. “Well, technically, yes. Not your preferred travelling partner, am I?”

“It’s not that,” Sehun says quickly. “Why did I leave? How could I leave?!”

“God, Sehun. Fuck if I know half the things you do with a reason!”

Sehun licks his lips and lowers his head. “I can see that you’re still bitter about us breaking up.”

“No. I’m bitter about you fucking things up between me and Baekhyun and tricking me into running away with you and screwing every guy you see worthy in your path.”

Sehun grimaces. “What? I did that?”

Chanyeol groans. “What the fuck did you alter the fate again for?”

Sehun lets him read his mind once more to give him the answers he needs. Chanyeol falls silent thereafter, biting his lip and looking vacantly at Sehun.

“I need to find Kai and I need to find Gwenna,” Sehun says slowly, taking hold of Chanyeol’s arm. “Help me.”

“Sehun…” Chanyeol says and pauses for a moment. “Kai is…” he trails off.

Sehun’s heart drops to his stomach. “What? Kai is what? Is he all right?!”

“Yes, yes. I… think so. But he… went away with Ren a long time ago.”

Sehun blinks at the taller man as he runs short of breath. “What do you mean… went away?”

Chanyeol frowns. “You were with Grace. Kai had managed to escape somehow and… he took off. The last time someone saw him, he was with Ren in Northside Marendale.”

Sehun sinks into a chair and looks desolately at the worn floorings. He couldn’t bring himself to speak for a moment. “So much for true love,” he says in a low murmur. “Where’s… Shixun?”

“With Grace.”

Then planting his head in his hands, he swallows a sob before shooting up to his feet. “We have to go back.”

“Where?”

“Back to Grace.”

“Are you mad?”

“As crazy as this sounds, she’s the only one who can help us right now.”


	12. Lap's Restart

The heat rained mercilessly and licked their skin, leaving beads of sweat behind. Layers of sand and grit blanketed the road. The barren grounds on either of it were the aftermath of the breath of hell. Sehun rolled the window down, but disrelished the dry, warm wind that slapped his face.

In the haze of the sweltering afternoon, he cursed silently, hungering for a cold shower. He had no idea where they were or if they were any closer to Grace’s mansion than they were an hour ago.

His heart, though broken, felt somewhat content again. It was as though he had returned home. This fate was where he belonged. This body, this Sehun was the real him. It felt right. He wasn’t suffocating anymore. He tried not to think of Kai. But he was convinced that the other fate could exist concurrently with this fate. It gave him a little comfort, knowing that the other Kai did not exist. But the Kai he loved in this fate did and he did not know where to begin again with him. He had no idea what could have happened between them that Kai had chosen to leave him for Ren, even after all the betrayal. Maybe there was a good explanation for everything.

He glanced at Chanyeol, who looked lost in his own thoughts—and perhaps in some of Sehun’s—as he kept his eyes on the road, his hands steady on the steering wheel and gear stick.

Sehun raised a leg and settled a foot on the dashboard. “Tell me,” he said. “What else have I missed?”

Chanyeol fixed him with a sidelong glare and a lockjaw. “FLAC was shut down.”

Sehun lowered his gaze. “Anything else?”

“I heard that people saw some of the Recherchés living in hiding.”

“They got away from Grace?” Sehun rasped and Chanyeol shrugged.

“I think it was Mark and Xiomara.”

Sehun’s breathing quickened. “Do you know where they are?”

“No. Not exactly.”

“But you know where Kai is… Maybe he knows. Chanyeol, I have to get to him.”

Chanyeol scoffed mockingly. “You want to go to Northside Marendale, where nothing good ever happens? It’s the home of filthy gangbangers and street rats, Sehun. Besides, why do you want to? I thought you had moved on from him.”

Sehun frowned. He felt a tug at his heart. “ _I_ had not,” he said and Chanyeol shot him a brief glance. “There must have been a reason why I decided to stay away but I’m pretty sure I would never want to stay away from him for good.”

“Well, that’s what you told me, at least, when you showed at my apartment, drenched in rain and half drunk.”

Sehun opened his mouth to say something but closed it again, glancing out the window. “You said… that I ruined things between you and Baekhyun.” He looked at Chanyeol again. “What did I… do? And what did you mean by that I tricked you into… running away with me?”

Chanyeol sighed, gripping the wheel. It almost seemed like they were heading nowhere and the sun was beginning to sink in the sky. Sehun’s stomach grumbled softly. He stuck a hand out the window and tried to humidify the weather.

He grinned when an overcast hid the scorching sun away and a light mizzle began to kiss the seared earth. He felt the raindrops on his palm and smiled wider, realizing how the Atmokinesis Flair came to him rather naturally in this fate. It struck him then that this fate had been his real life. This identity was the real him. He was born like this and in this world, everything made sense.

In the other fate, everything felt like a surreal dream he could not wake up from. But now that he had, he was awake, breathing.

“Chanyeol, what happened? Tell me. I can’t read minds like you,” he said when Chanyeol did not respond.

“Like I said. You showed up at my apartment that night and… Baekhyun walked in on us while we were… in a very compromising position. I couldn’t blame him for the slurs and profanities he threw at me before he threw… a lamp at me. And then you called me the next day, told me you needed to get out of here, and get as far away as you could.”

Sehun swallowed hard. “I’m… sorry, I was such a hoe.”

“No kidding,” Chanyeol snorted.

“I never would have done something like that in my right mind, Chanyeol.”

Actually, he would have. If he had enough reasons to be turned on and was horny, he would have slept with Chanyeol. It was not as though he were completely indifferent towards Chanyeol. They did like each other for a considerable amount of time. If Sehun had not been so head over heels for that jackass Kai, he was certain he would have fallen for Chanyeol with all his heart. There was nothing that he did not like about Chanyeol. Even now, even when Chanyeol had turned into this brooding, mysterious, resentful guy, Sehun found it a little more attractive.

Perhaps it was this body that was making him think this way, Sehun thought. This body was craving for attention and it had him dumbstruck. He shoved his lewd, obscene thoughts away and focused on redeeming himself.

“Did I tell you why I was running away?” he asked.

“You said you didn’t care about what Grace does to you anymore. Even if she broke the bond between you and Shixun. You wanted to just get away from her.”

Sehun unconsciously twiddled with the chain around his neck. “I’m still… very sorry.”

“Whatever,” Chanyeol exhaled heavily. “It’s in the past. Only after leaving with you did I find out that… you were just looking for a distraction that night.”

“And what were _you_ doing? If you were with Baekhyun… why did you do it? I certainly couldn’t have tied you to the bed or something, could I?” Then Sehun gulped, second-guessing himself. “I didn’t… _did_ I?”

Chanyeol chuckled despite himself. “Yeah, I mean, no, you didn’t. But yeah, I wanted it. Was I a complete moron for wanting so badly? Maybe.”

“So… where did that leave us? I just… want to be… uh, sure. Everything out in the open. Did we… do it again after that? Did we become friends with benefits? Or… are we giving ourselves another shot at being… boyfriends?”

Chanyeol finally looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. “You don’t want any of that, do you?” he scoffed. “Your head is full of Kai.”

“Stop peeking into it,” Sehun groaned and blocked his mind. Chanyeol frowned. “Tell me. What are we?”

“Nothing, Sehun. We are nothing.”

Sehun nodded and ordered the rain to stop. Now, the muggy air made him uncomfortable. He summoned the sunlight again.

“Quit playing with the weather,” Chanyeol chided.

“You know, in spite of all this shit, I’m happy I’m back. And I’m… almost certain that everything will be all right.”

“What is your plan with Grace? How do you intend to make her believe everything?”

Sehun smirked. “Oh, she’d believe me. Gwenna needs to be stopped at all cost. But I can’t do it on my own. Kai—”

“Kai would believe you,” Chanyeol spat. “So, you must go to him.”

“I have to.”

 

* * *

 

They stopped at a cheap motel for some rest when the night overtook the day. Perched on the bed in the room they had rented, Sehun silently gathered his thoughts, staring at his red hair in his reflection in the mirror. He needed to recolour it first thing when he had the leisure. Chanyeol still had not returned after he had left the room to get dinner.

Grace would be a tough audience, but Sehun knew he and she shared a common enemy now. It did not make Grace a good guy either. But that was a story for another time. For now, Sehun needed to get rid of the biggest fly in his soup.

He then thought of meeting Xiomara and Jungkook again. He was not sure if they’d be glad to see him again. Chanyeol certainly wasn’t. But if he really did hate Sehun so, why did he stay?

As much as he did not want to think about it, he found himself musing about meeting Kai again. It would be magical. Like a fairy tale with a happy ending. But then he remembered Chanyeol mentioning Ren. Why was Kai with Ren even after all the troubles Ren had caused everyone? Or maybe Kai just never loved him the way Sehun loved him. It grieved him. Regardless of everything that had happened between them, Sehun was still many years younger than Kai and Kai had a significant history with Ren. His love for Ren might have never extinguished.

Nonetheless, he was not here to continue his romantic endeavours with Kai. It was not the top priority. He was here for a lot more important matter that could end up in a large-scale cataclysm. But he had to see Kai. Kai could help him. And he needed to warn Kai about Gwenna.

Then he pondered about his parents. God, they must be worried sick. Sehun wasn’t sure how he could contact them now that he had lived another life in which they did not even play a part.

It brought him to reminisce the time when he was truly happy, living in the chateau with a large family. With Xi, Jungkook, Yixing, Mark, and even grumpy Donghae. Then there were Chanyeol, Heva, Amber, Kris, Shixun, Jule, Dee, even Faiion… How did they all fare now, he thought worriedly. But this was his real world.

And Kai…

Sehun knew he never would have fallen this deep and would not be hurting so fiercely had they been together. The distance made the heart grow fonder.

But Kai had been there. Another version of him. A reflection of the person he was in his younger days. Sehun had loved him, too. Though not as much as he loved the man he fallen in love with for the first time in his life.

And he knew the Kai he loved would never love him as much as the younger Kai had. He had built this fort for Sehun in his heart for many years. The Kai in this fate… well, Sehun would understand if he had really gone back to Ren.

The door swung open and Chanyeol sauntered in with candy bars in his hand. He tossed them to Sehun before shedding his jacket. “It’s the only decent food I could get in this dump,” he muttered as he began to unbutton his shirt.

Sehun had lost his appetite for the food but gained an appetite for something else as he watched Chanyeol undress. “You look so much different now,” he remarked, studying the solid muscles of Chanyeol’s back.

Chanyeol turned around and met Sehun’s desolate gaze. “How do I look in the other fate?” he asked.

Sehun shrugged. “Okay looking.”

Chanyeol harrumphed and hurled the shirt he had taken off on Sehun’s way. Sehun discarded it on the floor and rose from the bed. Chanyeol stared at him for a moment before clearing his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. “You must be hella confused right now.”

“I am,” Sehun admitted. “But like I said… I’m really happy.”

“Even when the world is coming to an end?”

Sehun sniggered. “Have faith. I’m still a Recherché. One of the strongest Flairers on earth.”

“That I don’t doubt. But it seems like you’ve already screwed things up a couple of times.”

Sehun hung his head when his eyes started to wander to Chanyeol’s abs. “I won’t mess things up this time,” he said in a low murmur.

Chanyeol closed the distance between them and cupped Sehun’s face in his hands. Sehun’s breaths froze.


	13. Unbounded

His hands on Chanyeol’s warm, hard chest stiffened as his eyes bored into Chanyeol’s. Though his body was reacting in all the right ways to Chanyeol’s lips that were less than an inch away from touching his, Sehun’s head was wailing alarmedly. The distance between them in the other fate had erased any grievances there were. But now, this Chanyeol felt differently for Sehun. The want and hunger were palpable in his limpid eyes.

“Chanyeol,” he let out at length and pulled away. Chanyeol released him, eyebrows scrunched up in a frown. Sehun instantly felt awful for doing that to him for that he knew how searing and painful rejection could be. But it was the right thing to do. “I can’t.”

Chanyeol retreated at once, looking embarrassed. “You are… different,” he muttered, scratching the back of his head.

“I don’t want to hurt you again,” Sehun said, sinking back on the bed. “I’m sorry for dragging you back into this mess.”

Chanyeol came to fill the empty space by Sehun’s side. “I was actually kind of happy that you turned to me when you needed someone and that… you trusted me.”

Sehun took hold of Chanyeol’s hand and lightly squeezed it. “Of course,” he exhaled. “You’re a real stand up guy.” He smiled and felt Chanyeol’s fingers tighten around his. “I want you to be happy, Chanyeol. Which is why I… don’t want us to… you know. But I’m glad we’re back on good terms… If that’s what this is.”

“Is it too pathetic of me that I don’t _just_ want to be on good terms with you?”

Sehun looked away, his hand idle among Chanyeol’s fingers. “I can’t think of that right now, Chanyeol. I have a lot on my—”

“Your plate, I know. But you’ve got plenty of time to think about Kai, don’t you?” he spat through his teeth and Sehun frowned at him. “Yeah, I don’t need to read your mind to know that. I get it. He’s your God.” He bitterly yanked his hand back and scowled at the ground.

_He’s your God._

Sehun did worship Kai more than the man deserved it. Everything he did, everything he thought of always revolved around Kai in one way or the other. His every action, though claimed to be selfless, was often selfishly aimed to somehow get himself to Kai again. It was the resentment of not having his dreams fulfilled with the man of his dreams that made Sehun worship Kai and pine for him so. It was why he had _refused_ to view the younger Kai as the Kai he had fallen in love with. They were two different people.

“I get it,” Chanyeol repeated in a low murmur. “I can never match up to that guy. I know. He’s a Flairer in a class of his own. He’s influential. He’s powerful. Which must be the reason why you’re so bloody blindly in love with him even when he does not deserve you.”

Sehun frowned and thought better than to provoke Chanyeol any further right now by arguing. But he could not help it. “That is not at all the reason why.”

Chanyeol snarled and jolted up from the bed. Sehun caught his hand and stopped him from walking away. “Why don’t you ever see _me_ , Sehun?!” Chanyeol yapped and pulled his hand away.

“Chanyeol—”

“Why the fuck can’t you see that I love you and I’d do anything to keep you happy?! Unlike that bastard who ran off with someone else?!”

Sehun’s heart broke at last. He rose to his feet and kissed Chanyeol—if not for anything else, at least to shut him up—entangling his fingers in the taller man’s hair. Chanyeol, shocked and baffled, took a moment to respond to the kiss. Then his lips slowly began to warm Sehun’s up. What was he doing… He did not want to give Chanyeol any hope, but his hands were already drooping down Chanyeol’s abs to fumble with the fly of his pants.

But then heat disappeared from his mouth all of a sudden when Chanyeol caught his wrists. “Stop,” he breathed against Sehun’s lips and sighed, resting his forehead on Sehun’s. “This isn’t what I want from you, Sehun. Stop offering your body up like you do to other men.”

He drew back and took Sehun to bed. They did nothing as they curled up against each other under the covers. Sehun, a little confused, let Chanyeol wrap his arms around him with Sehun’s back facing him.

“Are we cuddling?” Sehun asked.

“Shut the fuck up and go to sleep,” Chanyeol muttered, lips brushing against the nape of Sehun’s neck.

This was nice, too. But that night, Sehun barely got any sleep, as cosy as Chanyeol’s body was against his. He thought about how happy he truly would have been if he had fallen for Chanyeol instead of Kai in the first place. And then he wondered what if things did not go according to plan. What if he had to alter destinies again?

Grace must have known Sehun could meddle with destinies and change the course of the fate. But why hadn’t she done anything about it? She even allowed Shixun and Sehun to keep their bond.

And what if everything that happened in the other fate was just a course of that fate? What if Gwenna were really a good guy in this fate? What if Grace is the real bad guy? What if anything that happened in the other fate did not necessarily happen in this? What if Gwenna were not trying to take control of the Cataclysmic Dimensions in this fate? And she could see fragments of the future. She probably saw this coming, too. But she probably hadn’t acted on it because Grace had her locked away. It was only a matter of time before Gwenna got out and meddled with the dimensions she already had control of.

 

* * *

 

When he roused to the tormenting sunlight pouring through the window of the room, he squinted and huffed heavily. He then glanced at the weight on his weight before the soft snores on his shoulder blades registered to him.

He carefully removed Chanyeol’s arm from his waist and slinked out of the bed without making too many heavy movements that could wake the other man up. He looked back at Chanyeol, who was still sound asleep, and found the urge to ruffle his mussed bed hair.

Sehun then quietly pulled his shoes and jacket on before finding a piece of paper and pencil lying about. He quickly scribbled a message explaining his sudden departure on the paper. _I’m letting you off the hook. Thank you and I’m sorry for everything. You deserve better. S._

He checked his wallet on his way out of the room. He had enough cash. Good.

He stopped at the reception and impatiently tapped his foot on the ground while he waited for the curly, red haired woman to finish her business on the phone. She was chewing on a bubble-gum, drawling so lazily into the phone. Sehun knocked on the counter to get her attention. She raised a hand without looking at him and gestured him to wait.

Once she had put the receiver down, Sehun said, “Hi. My friend is still asleep in room number 23. If he asks for me, tell him I left.”

The woman shrugged, chewing loudly. “Sure, honey,” she muttered, dropping her attention to the newspaper.

“And can I know what is the fastest way to get to Northside Marendale from here?”

“The _only_ way you could get anywhere from here is either by walking or by the bus,” she said disinterestedly.

“Where can I catch the bus?”

She pointed a finger over Sehun’s shoulder without lifting her eyes from the newspaper. Sehun glanced back and spotted a bus stop on the other side of the road. “Okay, thanks.”

 

* * *

 

The dank, glum streets were paved with grey stones and the footprint of violence and transgression. The overcast above blocked the last rays of the evening sun from touching the colourless town. The driving wind was cold against Sehun’s face as he gazed up at the fat, dark clouds, threatening to split apart any moment now. The haze of grey in the town sucked out the life of the day and made way for the night.

Sehun was not sure if the rain were his doing. He could not think straight as he wandered aimlessly in the streets, ambling past the dregs of society that infested this part of the town. They leered at Sehun. Heavily pierced and tattooed with cigarettes dangling between their lips, unruffled by the brewing rain. They were everywhere. In the dark alleys, on the pavements, in the derelict shop lots. Sehun knew better than to attract any attention but he stuck out like a sore thumb in this town of monochromatic ugliness.

The buildings were short and storeyed. Grit and muck adorned the crevices on the building walls. The roads were narrow and uncared for. The town reminded Sehun of Gawlreng, except that this town was mired in darkness and dirt.

Sehun heard endless sirens wailing and people screaming from street to street. He kept his head low at all times. He had nothing to be afraid of, he thought. He was a Flairer for god’s sake. And a Recherché at that. He tried not to be shaken by the pocket knives and thick metal chains the gangbangers carried.

He needed to stop and ask around for Kai. If he were still here, that was. But he was too scared to stop anyone, let alone talk to them. Eyes followed him everywhere. It was only a matter of time before the rain would pour and Sehun would be pounced on.

He pulled his wallet out when he saw a homeless man on the street. He disposed of all the cash he had to the man and looked around to make sure some of the gangbangers were watching. They were. Good. Now they knew Sehun had no money to be robbed of.

“Th-Thank you,” the homeless man said, looking up at Sehun with stars in his weathered eyes.

“Um, can I ask you something, sir?” Sehun said and adopted a crouch.

“S-Sure.”

“Do you perhaps know where I can find this man called Kai? And… Ren.”

The man looked confused. “What do they look like?”

Sehun bit his lip. _One is very good looking. The other is a blonde tramp._ He reconsidered. _One is ye tall, ye handsome. The other is a lying, sly minx._ He shook the thought away.

He sighed and rose back to his full height. He weaved through another street before he sauntered into an alley. Tiny pellets of water began to spit on him. Though Sehun was in no mood to get drenched, he decided not to fool around with nature too much. So, he let the rain wash the ground.

The rain started falling in hasty, tumultuous drops. A lightning cracked the black sky in half before a head splitting thunder followed. Sehun enjoyed the bullets of rain his face for a moment as the water soaked into his clothes. He might hate himself for not seeking shelter later but for now, he delighted in the rain. His heart was light in this heaviness.

He then glanced at the fire escapes in the alley and the dumpsters at the end of it. He carded his fingers through the clumped strands of his wet hair and felt the raindrops on the back of his hand.

He wasn’t here because he needed Kai’s help, was he? He was here because he selfishly wanted to. He did not even have a solid plan before coming here. What if Kai really were with Ren? What then? Would Sehun just realter the destiny and go back to face the crap in the other fate just so he could be with Kai—whom he had brushed off so lightly and had hurt him in the process?

The remaining lights of the day waned as the rain grew stronger. Sehun did not realize he was crying until he tasted the salt of his tears along with the tepid rainwater. He closed his eyes and panted for breath.

He thought he was having delirium tremens when a strong arm snaked around his waist from behind and a hot breath grazed the back of his neck. His eyes flung open as he stood in paralysis. The cacophony of the storm would muffle his screams even if he tried to scream for help. He quickly lifted a hand to summon a lightning or something but froze when a hand seized his wrist from behind. The grip was strong, merciless. Then almost immediately, it loosened and the fingers slid down to the back of Sehun’s hand before they glided between Sehun’s fingers and clasped at them. A pair of warm lips kissed his nape and he shivered.

He was turned around aggressively before he was driven against the alley’s wall. Then without a forewarning and one last gasp of breath, his lips were crushed under Kai’s. He fought for air, hands clutching at Kai’s wet shirt before they found the curve of Kai’s neck to cling to. This was real. This was not one of Sehun’s vivid dreams. God, this was real.

Kai tilted his head to deepen the kiss, tongue against tongue. Sehun slid his fingers into Kai’s hair and hungrily kissed him back, inviting the man to abuse his lips. And Kai delivered generously. He showed no kindness as he caught Sehun’s lower lip between his teeth and sucked the rainwater from it. A moan broke from Sehun’s throat as he fisted Kai’s hair at the back of his head and delved his tongue into Kai’s mouth.

Rain and spit ran between their mouths as they kissed sloppily with every ounce of energy they harboured. Kai’s hands wandered down the sides of Sehun’s torso before he slid them back and mercilessly gripped Sehun’s ass. He was ravenous from extreme starvation. He bit Sehun’s lips a few times as he began to hump against his hips. Sehun, having run out of air, stole Kai’s breaths, panting into his mouth with Kai’s crotch grinding against his own.

The rawness in the heat swooned Sehun. This felt surreal. Only Kai could bring out so much passion, lust, and dark desires within Sehun. He oozed them right now as he melted against Kai.

Kai broke the kiss to let Sehun catch his breath, but it didn’t help him any when Kai ripped his shirt open and smashed his mouth onto one of his nipples. While one of Kai’s hands slid into Sehun’s shirt to press against Sehun’s back, arching his body forward, the other slithered past Sehun’s protruding tailbone and the cleft of his ass. Sehun moaned violently, gripping Kai’s hair, unsure of whether to concentrate on Kai’s tongue that was swirling around his pebbled nipple, licking the raindrops that dribbled down it, or Kai’s finger in his ass crack that was stroking the rim of his opening.

“Kai,” Sehun rasped as Kai dropped to a knee and latched his lips to Sehun’s navel, sucking the rainwater from it. As much as Sehun wanted him to go further, he did not think he’d last much longer. He grabbed the sides of Kai’s head and pulled him back up for an unsparing kiss.

“Sehun,” Kai breathed into his mouth and it was all that it took for Sehun to come untouched.

He pushed Kai against the wall next and sank to his knees on the ground. Even if this were all just a dream, Sehun could not care less. He undid Kai’s pants while kissing the trail of wet hair below Kai’s navel.

He then looked up at Kai with half-lidded eyes as he took Kai’s cock in his hand. Kai had his eyes closed and head leaned back on the wall, hands buried in Sehun’s hair. He watched Kai bite his lip when he brushed the tip of Kai’s cock with his lips. He jutted a tongue out and licked the raindrop from the slit of the cock. Kai grunted bestially, tightening his fingers around Sehun’s hair. Sehun teased him again, running the tip of his tongue along the cock slit repeatedly, savouring the precome. Kai looked like he would last too long either.

Sehun sank it and wrapped his mouth around the arching, swollen cock. If only Kai knew how much Sehun had missed him… If only…

He sucked his cock until he had completely run out of breath and his cheeks hurt. He moaned every time Kai’s cockhead slammed against the back of his throat.

“Fuck,” Kai gasped into the storm as he burst in Sehun’s mouth.

Sehun swallowed the come, as much as he could, and licked the rest off Kai’s cockhead before Kai pulled him up. He gently held Sehun’s chin and kissed his filthy mouth before the rain could wash the stain away. Then smiling into the kiss, he stroked Sehun’s cheek, pressing their foreheads together.

“I missed you, too, princess,” Kai muttered, holding Sehun like he planned to never let go again. Sehun broke into tears then, burying his face in the crook of Kai’s neck.

 

* * *

 

“I know it’s a dump,” Kai said as he pushed the door of his apartment open, still holding Sehun’s hand in his. “But it’s home.”

Sehun let himself be hauled into the apartment, which was indeed a dump. Dirty clothes were strewn all over the floor and furniture. Empty boxes of pizza lay about. The lamp was not working.

“How hasn’t… Grace found you yet? She must have like a dozen of Locators,” Sehun muttered as he glanced around the apartment, looking for signs of Ren’s presence.

“She must have,” Kai said. “But I don’t know why she hasn’t come for me. I was never her main target, remember? Besides, she got what she wanted.”

“So… you just live like this now? Like a Pootle?”

Kai faced him with a smug smile. “Why? You can’t see yourself with a man like this?”

Sehun frowned. “You know that’s not true… I was just… I don’t know. Kai, we need to talk.”

Kai released Sehun’s hand. His eyebrows furrowed. “Talk,” he ordered, sounding like his old, strict self.

“Do you… remember when Shixun and I helped you escape from the citadel?”

Kai clenched his eyes then and sucked in a deep breath. “You altered the destiny again…”

“Listen. I had to. Things had turned to shit. There was no other way. It’s a very long story but you have to trust me. Please, listen to me.”

“When have I never?” Kai sighed and plumped on the couch without removing his wet clothes. “What happened?”

“You’re not gonna believe me but… Gwenna is evil.”

Kai lifted an eyebrow and pinned him with a ridiculous look.

Sehun groaned. “Told you you’re not gonna believe me.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t believe you. But an accusation like that needs to be backed up pretty heavily, kid.”

“Don’t call me a kid,” Sehun spat and sat on the coffee table across Kai. “I have no receipts. So, you might never trust me. But she jacked you up badly in the other fate. You were possessed and… you were trapped in the Darkness Dimension. It was all Gwenna’s doing. She is trying to take over this thing called the Cataclysmic Dimensions.”

Kai’s face paled. “The Cataclysmic Dimensions?”

“She couldn’t control you in this fate because… well, you’re strong. But she could take over your soul with Arthur in the other. Before we could get help, she got to you.”

Kai stared.

Sehun clenched his jaw. “Fine. Don’t believe me. I’ll just have to get Grace’s help by myself then.”

“Calm down, Sehun,” Kai said, taking hold of Sehun’s hands before Sehun could get up.

“No, Kai! You can continue to live like this with your precious Ren if you want. I have to go.” He pulled his hands free and shot up.

“What are you talking about?” Kai spat, grabbing hold of Sehun’s arm painfully.

“Where is he? Your booty boy? Do you want to know what’s the worst thing ever? I know that you will never love me as much as I love you or even as much as you love that wretch but I keep wanting to come back to you like a fool, ignoring everything else that could bode well for me! I can’t blame you for that… I’m just some boy whom you lusted after when you wanted to. But this is as real as it gets for me, Kai. Sure, take me for a stupid kid that is overly infatuated with you. But you could have at least been real when you said you didn’t want Ren anymore. Why give me that hope?! Why let me fall deeper for you when you cannot—umph um!”

He stopped when Kai clasped a hand over his mouth. “Jesus Christ, how can someone talk so fast?” he said.

Sehun shoved Kai’s hand from his face and scowled. “I’m leaving.”

“Well, you didn’t come to leave, did you?”

Sehun stopped and drew a breath. “I love you,” he declared firmly.

“I love you, too,” Kai replied calmly.

Sehun gritted his teeth. “Then why would you—”

“Ren needed a safe place to stay. I let him stay here for a while. That’s it. And he’s gone now. Nothing else happened.”

“Oh,” was all that Sehun could say. He wasn’t sure if he could believe Kai. Of course, something would have happened. They were once in love and if they were living under the same roof in this dark, drunk town, something surely would have happened.

“Now, can we talk about Gwenna and why you want to go back to Grace?” Kai asked.

“I have to get out of these clothes first,” Sehun muttered and Kai smirked.

 

* * *

 

“The world is coming to an end,” Sehun mused as he stroked Kai’s hair while Kai lay between Sehun’s legs, arms curled under Sehun’s thighs, lips restlessly peppering Sehun’s stomach and navel with kisses as they lay in the bed. “And here I am… feeling like I’m living a dream.”

Kai caressed a side of Sehun’s torso as he drew his tongue along Sehun’s waistline. Sehun had told Kai everything he needed to tell while Kai entertained himself by filling Sehun’s shirtless body with as many kisses as he wanted.

“Why did you come looking for me?” Kai mumbled, brushing his lips on the sensitive skin below Sehun’s navel.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know why.”

He felt Kai’s lips stretch into a smile against his skin. “I was starting to believe that you’d never come looking for me… So… you’re not going back to the other fate?”

“I don’t want to,” Sehun muttered. He looked down at Kai. “We can get married and have no more than two kids here.”

Kai lifted his head and blinked at Sehun. He then crawled up and held a side of Sehun’s head before kissing him full on mouth. Sehun splayed his fingers on Kai’s shoulder blades and hummed softly into the kiss. “This feels like a dream for me, too,” Kai whispered.

“But we can’t stay here forever…”

Kai sighed and pressed a kiss to Sehun’s forehead. “I know.”

“I won’t force you to come with me if you still don’t believe me after everything I told you.”

Kai got off Sehun and perched on the edge of the bed. “Gwenna… she’s been like a mother to us all…”

“You’re not that young.”

Kai slammed a pillow against Sehun then. “You know what I mean… I can’t just… blindly accept all this.”

“I know,” Sehun sighed and sat up. He kissed the back of Kai’s shoulder. “But I need you. And… you’ll see for yourself when we confront Gwenna.”

Kai rose from the bed and pulled a shirt on. “I’ll go rent a car and we could get something to eat on the way. Why don’t you jump in the shower and get ready?”

“Kai,” Sehun called and Kai paused on his way out. “You… believe me, don’t you?”

Kai walked back to the bed and kissed Sehun on the lips. “You know that I do.”

Sehun did not.

Once Kai was gone, Sehun walked around the shoddy apartment for a moment before he stepped into the shower. The warm water was a blessing against his skin. He knew Kai was half-hearted about believing Gwenna was behind a plot so devious. Sehun realized turning Kai or anyone else against Gwenna would be more difficult than he thought.

He found an oversized jumper and a pair of sweatpants in Kai’s wardrobe and pulled them on. Then when he tired of waiting for Kai, he jumped back into the bed and decided to take a nap. As he drifted off to sleep, he dreaded of waking up in the other fate, hugging Kai’s pillow to his face.

 

* * *

 

The darkness ebbed as he woke up with a jolt, all of senses returning to him like a gushing flood. He sat up, thunderstruck by the sudden head-splitting noise. His first instinct was to lift a hand to defend himself but the pain that followed in his wrist almost knocked him out of his consciousness.

He was screaming, but he could not hear his own voice. He felt his heartbeat drum in the back of his eyes while the pain numbed his brain. In the haze, he gasped as his body jerked forward and he fell off the bed.

His right hand was limp, the wrist twisted and broken. The tears that stung his eyes flowed down his cheeks uncontrollably as he tried to regain his focus.

What was happening? Who are the masked men in the room, looming over him? What did they want? He panted, his face closed in a grimace as he cried. He tried lifting his injured hand but when the agony struck him, he collapsed on the ground again. It took him a moment to realize the agony was the boot in his gut.

He croaked out a cry for help before another boot stomped him on the stomach.

“Get him,” someone said among the intruders. “You’ve been a bad boy. Making a lot of enemies.”

Sehun tried to crawl away but he was caught by his hair and yanked back. His watery eyes fell on the open window and he lifted his left hand towards it to summon the wind, a storm, anything. But he screamed again at the top of his lungs, bellowing for help when the door opened.

“Kai!” he cried out when he saw Kai walk in.

The instant Kai looked at him, a metal rod slammed against the back of his head and he dropped to the floor at once.

“No!” Sehun screamed when the intruder drove the rod on Kai’s skull again.

A limp groan broke from Kai’s throat as he looked up at Sehun, eyes glistening with tears. He tried to push himself up only to be struck down again. When Sehun began to rise, a foot on his back shoved back to the ground.

“We still need him. Don’t hurt him too much,” Sehun heard someone say when the rod was swung towards Kai again.

Sehun sucked in trembling breaths as he looked at Kai. Though Kai had his eyes open for a brief moment to take in Sehun’s pleading gaze, he eventually began to lose his consciousness.

“No, Kai! Kai!” Sehun cried.

“Oh, no. Kai, Kai,” a man scoffed in a mocking tone. “Tsk, tsk, tsk.”

The masked man crouched beside Kai with a glowing red hand. He slowly brought it to Kai’s neck. He was Flairer.

Sehun grunted and elbowed the leg of the foot that was pinning him down. “Kai!” he shrieked as he tried to scramble up to his feet.

That was when he was backhanded across the face before the two men grabbed him by the shins of his legs. Sehun dropped on the ground on his back, the men stomped on his knees repeatedly without an ounce of mercy.

The suffering that followed next was unreal. The joints of his knees gave in as the bones were broken, shattered. The pungent smell of blood and the pain that felt like death knocked him out of his senses.

Sehun lay limp, broken, hoping that death would put an end to the pain in his legs. As he began to black out, his vision blurred. The man with the red hand approached Kai’s motionless body again.

The second he brought his hand close, Kai’s hand sprung up and clutched at the man’s neck before snapping it with one swift motion. His eyes flung open, completely black and unforgiving.

“Shit!” the guy with the green spikes all over his face rasped and lunged forward, but he stood no chance as Kai jolted up to his feet with blood trickling down his head and eyes as black as the moonless, starless night. One look into his eyes was all it took for the men to drop limp on the ground, all instantly thrust into the Darkness Dimension.

Then as the whites of his eyes returned, Kai looked down at Sehun, his legs and wrist broken, still hanging between sentience and oblivion. He was aware of the pain, every bit of it was registered, but he could not do anything about it.

“Sehun,” Kai gasped as he dropped to his knees and took Sehun’s head in his hands. “Fuck,” he spat, blinking the tears away, and lifted Sehun up into his arms before storming out of the apartment.


	14. Home

The emptiness abated as sleep deserted him. A low thrum on the back of his skull bestirred him and the brightness of the sunlight dancing behind his closed eyelids painted a psychedelic pattern, tempting him to rise.

Sehun sucked in a breath and felt a faint pain on a side of his abdomen. He stopped stirring and lay still for a moment longer. His body was not ready to wake up, though his mind was. He felt his fingers twitch on a soft linen and he flinched when he felt his wrist sting.

“Sehun?” he heard a gentle voice resound around him. It was a female voice. And it was familiar. Too familiar. It sent a chill down his spine.

Without making too many movements, Sehun tried to flutter his eyes open. He squinted at the sudden onslaught of brightness and clenched his eyes again. He then felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.

Slowly, he cracked an eye open and took in the ill-defined figure hovering above him. Her burgundy coloured hair caught his attention first. And then the kind, familiar smile.

“Mom?” he let out. His head was heavy when he tried to lift it.

Oh, no.

When his vision cleared, he saw Grace gawking at him, blinking in something like shock. “Mom?” Sehun exhaled again and saw Grace’s eyes widen.

“No, don’t get up. You’re heavy on painkillers and sedatives,” Grace told him, sounding a little dumbstruck.

Sehun dropped his head back on the pillow and huffed in discomfort for a moment. He looked at the ceiling and then slowly turned his head to glance at the window through which the sunlight was gushing through. The room looked familiar, but not familiar enough for him to be convinced that he was back in the other fate.

He turned his heavily lidded eyes back to his mother as his heart sank. “Grace,” he said hoarsely and found Grace smirking.

“For a moment there I thought you had lost your mind having your head bashed in pretty bad,” Grace scoffed and patted Sehun’s shoulder gently.

Sehun forced his eyes open and tried to sit up, but with a sharp gasp, he collapsed back when his right wrist smarted nastily.

“Easy,” Grace sighed, perched on the edge of the bed.

Sehun lifted his right hand and surveyed the cast around his wrist. His head was in a muddle. None of it had been a nightmare. It was all too real. His breath hitched. Then like a flood, the horrific images of him crying for help glutted his mind.

He could not move his legs. He did not dare to. He raised his head a little and looked past the shorts he was clad in. The splints on his knees looked fancy, he thought. There was no pain, but the splints immobilized his legs.

“You’ve broken a couple of bones,” Grace said in a monotonous voice. “And you were just discharged from the hospital. The doctors will drop by soon. I suggest you don’t move around too much.”

“I…” Sehun said but trailed off, unsure of where to start.

“At least this will keep you from running away from home again,” Grace muttered and rose to her feet.

“Did you… Those men…” Sehun panted, pushing himself upright on his left hand. “Did you send them?”

Grace grimaced and then laughed. “I should have,” she said. “But I knew you’d come home eventually on your own. I was not expecting you to be _brought_ home by Kai, who was begging me to help you. I must say I’m a little disappointed because I really found the other one called Chanyeol a much better companion for you.”

Sehun scowled. His head was still spinning. He was not sure just for how many days had he been unconscious. “Where is… he?” he asked breathlessly. “Where is he?!”

“Shh,” Grace hissed and turned her head halfway around. Sehun followed her gaze and his heart finally warmed when he saw Kai fast asleep on the chaise lounge with his legs dangling over the armrest. “I reckon he’s tired. Has been sleepless for almost three nights. Why don’t we let him rest, hmm?”

Sehun then glared at Grace. “Don’t you dare do anything to him.”

“Oh, Sehun,” Grace chuckled softly. She ran her fingers through Sehun’s hair and when Sehun flinched away, she smirked again. “Don’t tempt me,” she whispered and straightened up. “But don’t worry. We have a pact now. Think of it as a punishment for your misdeeds.” She ruffled Sehun’s hair before pulling away.

“Wait. Grace,” Sehun rasped. “I have to talk to you. Please. It’s very important.”

“Oh, we will talk plenty, Sehun,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “But first. I’ll let you get better. Then we’ll talk.”

As she stormed out of the room, Sehun was struck by another string of confusion. What were her threats about? And what pact did she have with Kai now? Did Kai bring him here because Sehun had told him he wanted to see Grace?

He stared at Kai on the chaise lounge for a moment. The man’s wounds had healed. He had an arm thrown over his forehead as his chest rose and dropped rhythmically. Though Sehun was tempted to wake him up and bombard him with questions, he decided to let Kai sleep. He was not shackled in Restrainers either. Was this Grace being nice or calculative?

Fixing his gaze back on the ceiling, Sehun thought about what he should tell Grace. Gwenna was still lost in the Darkness Dimension and Kai could not find her. That could only mean she was no longer in it and had probably traversed into another dimension. What Sehun needed to confirm right now was that she could travel through any dimension in any fate.

Would Grace believe him? Would she want to help him? She hated Gwenna but she also had her own agendas. Sehun doubted that saving the world and the dimensions would be one of them. But she would not like Gwenna to have the ultimate power, would she?

He sat up and took a breath, staring at the splints again. The bruises on his otherwise fair knees were ghastly. Who were the men that attacked them? He remembered them wanting to do something with Kai but cared little for Sehun. Or they wanted to get rid of Sehun.

If Grace hadn’t sent them, then who had?

He was at least home. Or this was as close to a home he’d get in this fate. He looked at Kai and a small smile crept onto his lips. No. _That_ was home. Kai.

With a disgruntled breath, Sehun lifted one of his legs with his left hand and dropped a foot on the floor. Then with his face scrunched up in distress, he brought the other leg over the edge of the bed. The t-shirt he was wearing smelled like the hospital and he just generally reeked. He could use a shower but he was not sure if he could walk.

He should try to. There was not any walking aid around, so he thought that he was okay to walk.

He gripped onto the bedside table and pushed himself off the bed. _Shit. Bad idea._

The pain that had not been there a moment ago torpedoed him and his legs gave in. He let out a shrill cry as he caved and fell to the ground.

“Sehun!” Kai clamoured as he jolted up from the chaise lounge and raced to Sehun’s side. Then quickly dropping to a crouch, he scooped Sehun up into his arms and placed him back on the bed. “I hate to be the severe _shark_ you loathe so much, but don’t make me nag you for not using your brain.”

Sehun frowned, looking up at Kai with a sour moue. “You’re being mean,” he muttered, blinking the tears in his eyes away.

“These things are here so that you don’t walk,” Kai hissed furiously, pointing at the splints. “Do you not want to walk forever?!”

Sehun swallowed and hung his head. “You know, the younger you would never scold or yell at me when I’m hurt like this…”

Kai pursed his lips and scowled. His eyes were still leaden with sleep and his hair was a beautiful mess. “I’m sorry,” Kai sighed at length and stroked a side of Sehun’s hand with his calloused hand. “I didn’t mean to yell.”

“Why are we here?” Sehun asked in a low voice.

“You needed her help,” Kai answered curtly, cupping Sehun’s cheek gently. “And you said you wanted to talk to her. So, I thought this would be the best place to bring you.”

“And you? What if she—”

“It’s fine. I’m fine. Don’t worry.”

“How are you fine? You know what she did to Kris. Or what she’s still doing to him.”

“I know,” Kai murmured. “I pledged her my allegiance.”

“You what?!” Sehun grated, eyes popping out. “Are you out of your mind?! I know that she’s our only hope right now but you don’t have to pledge anything to her! She’s just as bad as Gwenna! She killed your mother!”

“I didn’t do it for me or to save the world from Gwenna, okay?” Kai spat, glowering. “I did it for you.”

Sehun fell silent. He lowered his gaze and stared at the cast around his wrist. “I don’t want her to… ruin you, too,” he whispered after a while.

“I wouldn’t mind getting killed for you, Sehun,” he said nonchalantly and Sehun lifted his eyes to blink vacantly at Kai. In this aspect, the young and old Kai did not differ much. They were steadfast and sincere.

Sehun’s throat tightened. “I wanted to go to the bathroom,” he said under his breath.

“You should have woken me up.”

“You were sleeping.”

Kai smirked to himself as he pulled Sehun’s t-shirt off for Sehun, minding the injured wrist. “Can I help with the shorts, too?” he asked.

“No, leave them on. The world’s ending, stop flirting, old man.”

Kai let out a short grunt as he lifted Sehun up into his arms effortlessly and carried him to the bathroom.

* * *

“We need a plan B,” Kai said as he approached the bathtub with a towel. Sehun gathered the bubbles around him to cover himself. Kai turned the showerhead on and held it to Sehun’s head to wash the shampoo off.

“Enough,” Sehun gasped when the bubbles around his crotch began to pop.

Kai then perched on the edge of the tub, back facing Sehun, and heaved a sigh. Sehun stared at Kai for a moment before he dropped his eyes to the water in the bathtub he was soaking in.

“Plan B is for us to elope and get married in some countryside gazebo and live happily for as long as we can before Gwenna destroys us,” Sehun said and Kai scoffed out a laugh.

“Now, who’s flirting?”

“You’re a good teacher,” Sehun muttered without a smile, keeping his gaze low on the bubbles around his own stomach.

“So, your theory is that since I can’t find Gwenna in the Darkness Dimension, she probably escaped it,” Kai said.

“It’s just a theory,” Sehun said.

“And if she could travel through the dimensions in any fate, we can’t even kill her, because she has control over the Afterworld Dimension. She could always get out of there if we kill her. So, our only way now is to find out where she is. I remember Grace saying something about Gwenna growing weak. It’s her body that’s growing weak because she’s barely occupying it. I’m also gonna have to get back to my apartment and clean up the mess. Find out who those bastards are.”

“Could be,” Sehun mumbled.

“Are you even listening?”

“Huh? Yes.” He bit his lip and pushed his wet bangs out of his forehead. “I’m sorry. I’m just distracted.”

Kai’s eyes narrowed as he stared down at Sehun.

“I mean, we’re here. Protected. Who knows just for how long we’d have this moment…” Sehun said and let out a heavy breath. “Why don’t you get in the tub with me?”

His cheeks burned when he had let the words slip out. He did not have the courage to raise his head and look at Kai’s reaction.

“Now?” Kai asked. “Your legs are broken, Sehun.”

“My dick and ass are perfectly fine!” Sehun snapped.

Kai laughed despite himself. He took his shirt off and let his predatory gaze venture all over Sehun’s uncovered upper body. Sehun lifted his wet, left hand from the water and brought it to Kai’s stomach. He gnawed at his lower lip as his fingers were splayed over Kai’s hard abs, smearing them with soapy water. Then lazily, he drew his hand up to Kai’s chest as Kai leaned down.

Then the devil appeared.

They came apart with a jolt with the door slammed open and Shixun burst in with a loud gasp. Sehun immediately reached out for the towel while Kai rose to his feet.

“Kai!” Shixun exclaimed and ran over to Kai.

“Hey, kiddo,” Kai muttered as Shixun pounced on him and they wrapped their arms around each other. Sehun scowled and pouted. It felt like he was watching a scene of him and Kai hugging, but that wasn’t him and he instantly decided that as much as he missed Shixun, he did not like his brother and Kai embracing one another so unnecessarily tight like that.

When he finally pulled away from Kai, Shixun turned to Sehun. “Sehun!” he cried but suddenly paused. He leered at Kai’s shirtless body and then back at Sehun. “Were you two about to fuck in the bath?”

Kai grew red like a prude and slapped the back of Shixun’s head. “Get out,” he ordered Shixun at once.


	15. Into Existence

“Wow,” was all that Shixun could say once he was brought up to speed. His face had paled with sorrow. He had been that way ever since Sehun had mentioned Kris’ inevitable death in the other fate before he had reversed it. Sehun found it amusing that Kris’ death distressed Shixun more than his own.

Sehun extended a hand to his brother’s knee. “Where is… Kris?” he inquired.

Shixun’s expression turned even more bitter. “You helped him escape.”

Sehun’s eyes widened. “I did?”

With a tight nod of his head, Shixun sighed. “Grace was furious when she found out. She threatened to hold you in Kris’ place.”

“And I ran away.”

“I was hoping she would not find you… But I am selfishly happy that you have returned.” He smiled and Sehun mirrored the grin.

“You have no idea how happy I am to see you again.”

“Must have been difficult… watching me die.”

Sehun grieved at the painful memory. “I don’t ever want to go through something like that ever again.”

Shixun shifted on the edge of the bed as Sehun leaned back on the headboard. “You know, she isn’t going to easily tell you Gwenna’s location.”

“I know,” Sehun said. “I was hoping you would be our… Plan B. You must know enough about Grace now. And you have… skills and talents that could help you find where Grace keeps her secrets.”

“She keeps them in her head,” Shixun snorted. “But I’ll do what I can. After all, sneaking around has been one of my strongest suits.”

“But first, I need to find out where the others are. Xiomara, Mark, Donghae, Yixing, Jungkook.”

“Dee.”

“Oh, yes. Dee! How is she?”

Shixun shook his head. “I have no clue. But I met Xiomara a few weeks ago. I told you about it.”

“What did you tell me?”

“She doesn’t want to be found. No one does. Grace has been lenient enough. Trust me, they wouldn’t have escaped if Grace didn’t want them to. They fear her now. They wouldn’t want to cross her path.”

Sehun frowned. “They are well-trained Recherchés. They shouldn’t be fearing anybody. We need their help.”

“The last time we had all been optimistic about defeating Grace all of our lives changed. Yours and mine received the least damage, if I’m being honest.”

Sehun hung his head. “Not really… We had… won. I altered her destiny but… I guess it wasn’t much of a success since we’re back here… Any idea where Faiion is?”

“Grace probably has him locked away with Gwenna, too,” Shixun said with a pained face.

“What about Kris?”

“I am not risking Kris’ life again, Sehun.”

Sehun clenched his jaw. “Fine. I’ll do this on my own if I have to.”

Shixun took hold of Sehun’s hand. “I’ll do it with you. But it will not be fair to ask the others to get sucked into something that could ruin them. Again.”

Sehun exhaled heavily. Shixun had a point. Everyone had fought enough. This was perhaps just Sehun’s fight.

There was a knock on the door. A Minder entered with a tray of food. Sehun sat up straighter and scowled at the Minder.

“Where is Kai?” he demanded. The Minder paused, brows rising and eyes widening.

“Uh… I don’t know but I can find out, Young Master,” he said. Gritting his teeth, Sehun yanked the covers to his chest, staring at the Minder who settled the tray on the bedside table.

“Relax,” Shixun told him once they were alone again. “He’s fine. Grace wouldn’t hurt him now.”

“He said that he had pledged his allegiance to her,” Sehun groused annoyedly. “I don’t know what that entailed.”

“It entails his loyalty. I wish Kris had done it when he was given the chance,” he sighed. “We might have… still stayed together.”

Sehun glanced at the mirror and frowned at his blazing red hair, running a hand through it.

His brother smiled as he rose from the bed. “We’ll do something about your hair once your legs are better,” he promised.

“I make a lot of bad choices in this fate,” Sehun muttered, lowering his hand to his lap.

Shixun shrugged. “Yet, you keep coming back to it.”

That made Sehun smile. “It truly feels like… coming home. In spite of all the crap.”

“Shixun,” Sehun called when his brother started toward the door.

“Yeah?”

“How come you haven’t tried to… run away? Like I did?”

Curling his lower lip between his teeth, Shixun gnawed at it for a moment. “At least I’m free here, Sehun. Free to be… what I am.”

Sehun could not believe his ears. “ _Free_?” he repeated in disbelief. “Under her clasp?”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” he said quickly, heaving a breath. “I mean… no one fears me here. Not like I’m a freak of nature, you know? Grace is horrible, but she doesn’t tell me to hide myself like Faiion used to.” There was a palpable grievance in his tone. “She isn’t… holding me back.”

As much as Sehun wanted to yell at Shixun for underselling Grace’s atrocities, he couldn’t because he had seen the kind, loving mother she was in the fate. He had grown to love her. He knew he should not be feeling an ounce of love for her now, but it was impossible to overlook the fact that they were, essentially, the same person. Only with different destinies.

“She still did many horrible things, Shixun. She held Kris captive, tormented him, and did the same with everyone we cared for. And she… killed Kai’s mother. She was the reason our lives are so fucked up.”

“I know,” Shixun said. “I am in no way trying to justify her deeds. I hate her for all those reasons just as much. But can’t you see? It would have been worse if she hadn’t done all that. Gwenna would have killed us all by now.”

Sehun shook his head. “Killing us is not her priority.”

“Then whatever he priority is. Taking over the dimensions, the world, whatever. Grace impeded it, didn’t she?”

Sehun was too tired to argue about this. And confused. He wasn’t sure if he should talk against the woman he had come to feel strong affections for in the past couple of years.

“You should get some rest,” Shixun said. “I’ll come back later.”

Sehun nodded his heavy head and watched his brother wend his way out of the room. Sucking in a harsh breath, he then reached for the food tray on the bedside table and examined its content. There was a bowl of soup and bits of croutons. He scowled at them.

Finding them remarkably unappetizing, he set the tray aside and reclined on the bed. His wrist under the cast began to itch. Groaning into the pillow, he tried to ignore the numbing pain in his knees that relentlessly discomforted him.

A moment later, as he almost fell asleep, a woman sauntered into the room with a suitcase in her hand.

“Ah, you’re awake,” she said, smiling pleasantly. “Good. How do you feel?”

Sehun presumed she was a doctor as she fished a stethoscope out of the suitcase and settled in the chair at the side of the bed. “Like shit,” he spat, sitting up again with strain.

“I don’t imagine it’d be a vacation for you. You fractured quite a few bones and were unconscious for quite some days,” she informed him and brought the diaphragm of the stethoscope to his chest. “How’s your wrist?”

“You’re the doctor,” Sehun retorted. “You tell me.”

The doctor chuckled despite herself. “I reckon you do not enjoy your current state?” She retrieved the diaphragm and straightened up. “Then I suggest you do all that you can to get better as fast as possible.”

Sehun would rather find out who did this to him first and do something so bad to them that their dead mothers would weep. He sighed. Who was he kidding… He could not defend himself the first time, how would he do it the second time. It was embarrassing. He was a Recherché for god’s sake. Now, he was a lame with fractured knees.

“You should get enough rest in bed for at least six weeks.”

“Six weeks?” Sehun gasped. He did not have that much time. Every minute he spent here was a delay in finding Gwenna and putting a stop to her wickedness.

“I will come back tomorrow morning to check on your legs.”

“Wait,” Sehun called. “My wrist” He felt like he was whining like a child. “It… itches.”

“It will,” she replied with her lips pressed into a thin smile. “But we’ll change the cast if it starts itching too much, okay?”

Sehun bowed his head disappointedly. “Thanks…”

“You’re welcome, Sehun.” With that, she stormed out of the room, leaving Sehun in his solitude once more.

 

* * *

 

A couple of days passed without fuss or anything interesting. Sehun was helped by Minders and servants when he needed something done like going to the bathroom or changing into new clothes. Shixun visited twice every day with a new piece of gossip, which Sehun was wholly grateful for. There was still no sign of Kai, but Shixun reassured him that Kai was alive and doing fine and was kept busy by Grace.

“At least, he’s not held captive in some torture chamber,” Shixun had joked. Sehun did not find it funny. It frustrated him greatly that he was back with Kai after so long and so many hardships only to be kept away from him again. They still had so much to talk about, so much to figure out.

“Anything about Gwenna?” Sehun inquired the third day.

Shixun shook his head. “I’m trying to get something out of Grace, but you know, she’s one tough nut to crack.”

“Do you… have conversations with her?”

“Not usually,” Shixun muttered. “But sometimes… she listens… She actually listens.”

“I’m not sure you becoming friends with her is a good thing, Shixun.”

“I’m not becoming friends with her,” he argued. “Look. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?”

Sehun exhaled heavily. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”

“She needs to trust us. And after you ran away from home, she trusts you less.”

Sehun frowned. “I do… need her to help me if we’re ever gonna find Gwenna.”

“Exactly. So, butter her up. Be a nice son or whatever.”

Sehun smiled at that. “She’s wonderful, you know? In the other fate. We really had a… great family. Until… everything turned to shit.” He lowered his gaze to his fingers fidgeting with the edge of the duvet.

“You miss her?”

Sehun licked his lips. “I miss everyone.”

Kai. He missed Kai.

“Please, tell me you’re not considering changing fates again,” Shixun scoffed.

“God, no,” Sehun rasped. “But I will if Kai doesn’t come up to see by the end of today.”

“Shall I relay this message to him?”

“You shall. Tell him I will go back to the other Kai if I don’t see him tonight.”

Shixun smirked. “The brothers are bad news to us both, huh.”

“Totally,” Sehun conceded. “Don’t you… miss Kris?”

Shixun dropped his gaze. “I do.”

“Will you go see him?”

“I don’t want to risk it.”

Sehun swallowed and held a hand out to his brother’s that was resting on his lap. “I’m sure he misses you, too.”

Shixun rose from his seat and stretched his arms over his head. “I’m gonna go train now. Do you need anything else?”

When Sehun shook his head, Shixun winked at him and headed out.

 

* * *

 

There was a chance that Gwenna might still be held at the country house. Grace was twisted when it came to vengeance, so there was a big chance he could find Gwenna’s body there. But what good would that be if her soul was travelling between the Cataclysmic Dimensions? She was not in the Darkness Dimension according to Kai, even though he sensed her presence there. But when Kai trapped her there, he gave her the access to enter the dimension. Unless she transported herself to another dimension, she might have returned to her body.

Sehun was suddenly fixated on that possibility. He just needed to find out where she was. And he required Grace’s help to defeat her. Would Grace even believe him? If she did, would she want to help him?

Although he had requested to see her yesterday, she had not come to see him. It was evident that she did not take him seriously, especially after that stunt he had pulled by freeing Kris and running away.

He glanced at the mirror and grimaced at the red hair that glared back at him. He needed to fix that. He couldn’t have possibly done that in his right mind.

What kind of person was he in this fate, he wondered. How much had the events turned him into a degenerate that slept with his best friend, ruining his relationship with his other friend, coloured his hair a primary colour, did reckless things like helping a prisoner escape, hooking up with gangbangers in cheap motels, and like Chanyeol had said, sleeping with everything that was willing?

He was disgusted with himself. He hated many things in this fate, but he did not want that hatred to turn him into something so abhorrent.

When it all ended, he was still hoping for the life he wanted so bad with Kai.

As dark began to descend in the horizon, Sehun buried a side of his face in the pillow and watched the sunset through the window.

 He heard the door creak open behind him before it was quietly shut close again. He did not bother to go through the trouble of lifting his head to look at the intruder. Probably a servant. He did not care.

“Sehun?” he then heard Kai’s voice, soft and caring, cautious not to wake him up in case he was already asleep.

Shixun must have delivered the threat.

Sehun smiled to himself but did not respond.

Kai was fumbling at the door for a moment before he eventually pulled away from it and approached the bed. “Are you asleep?” he asked behind Sehun, who had his back turned to him.

Sehun kept his eyes on the window as shadows crawled onto the floor of his room. Then with small movements, Kai climbed into the bed, under the covers.

Sehun could not shift, his legs hurt too much when he did. So, he lay still, keeping a side of his face pressed into his pillow. He wanted to ask what had been keeping Kai so busy with Grace that he hadn’t the time to come see Sehun, who had gotten his legs broken and went through myriads of shit to be with him.

But then Kai answered the question, as though he had read Sehun’s mind.

“Grace has… assigned me as her Champion,” he said.

Champion?! Grace’s Champion!

Sehun bit his tongue, hands clenching into fists around the sheets. How dare she… And _why_ would she? Did she really believe Kai would keep his end of the bargain? Why? Because he loved Sehun so much?

Did he? He must love Sehun enough to pledge his allegiance to the woman who had murdered his mother for Sehun’s safety.

Nevertheless, how dare she! She made Kai her slave after murdering his mother, taking away his family, torturing his brother, and ruining his life. Was this all to punish Sehun?

“Sehun,” Kai purred then, a tentative hand finding its way to a corner of Sehun’s hip. It made Sehun shudder, giving his consciousness away.

Carefully sliding closer, Kai’s hand skated from Sehun’s hip to his waist, creeping under Sehun’s t-shirt. A soft, shaky breath escaped Sehun’s lips as Kai’s fingers poised over the toned planes of his belly.

“Missed me, have you?” Kai whispered, edging closer. “Well, I had missed you more.”

Sehun clenched his eyes tightly, not wanting to give in so soon and so easily.

“Are you mad?” Kai asked, his hand venturing further into Sehun’s shirt, climbing its way up his abdomen and chest until they found an eager nipple that instantly hardened under its touch.

Sehun could almost _feel_ smirking at his back.

“This will make things easier to find Gwenna,” said Kai, his fingers teasing Sehun’s nipple lightly. Sehun sank his teeth into his lip to bite back on a moan. “I might have even found a Locator who’s willing to help. But we need something that belongs to Gwenna.”

“Stop talking about Gwenna,” Sehun mewled meekly and sharply all of a sudden.

Kai’s hand froze and he raised his head to smirk down at Sehun. “Okay.” Bowing his head, he placed a warm kiss on a side of Sehun’s neck before his tongue darted out to lick the kiss mark from the hot skin.

It instantly withdrew a moan from Sehun’s lips. “Won’t you look at me?”

Sehun turned his head and met Kai’s eyes. Smiling, Kai cupped a side of Sehun’s face in his hand and leaned down to brush their lips together before he kissed Sehun firmly. His hand then travelled back down Sehun’s chest and slipped under the covers.

Breaking the kiss, Kai lowered his lips to Sehun’s neck, filling it with fiery kisses that had Sehun’s eyes rolling back. “Kai,” he gasped, hands flinging up to grip Kai’s hair and shoulder.

Bringing his head up to look into Sehun’s eyes, Kai said, “Let’s take it slow this time, okay? I don’t want to hurt you more.”

Sehun nodded his light head jadedly. “All right. But just… don’t… stop.” Hooking his arm around the back of Kai’s neck, he pulled him down to resume the kiss.

When Kai’s hand slowly found its way into Sehun’s boxers, Sehun groaned into Kai’s mouth, his fingers tightening around the curls of Kai’s hair. Taking Sehun’s rapidly hardening shaft in his hand, Kai deepened the kiss, swiping his tongue along Sehun’s and gasping for breath.

Sehun shivered, a jolt running down his spine, as Kai gently began to pump his cock, thumb stroking the leaking slit from time to time. “Kai,” he moaned when Kai caught his bottom lip between his teeth before lightly tugging it, leaving it reddened and bruised.

“Come for me, baby,” Kai breathed against Sehun’s ear and ran his tongue along the earlobe before sucking it sensuously. “Sehun…”

“Ah, oh… Kai, ah…” Clenching his teeth, Sehun yanked Kai back by his hair for a sloppy, wet kiss that drove him halfway to insanity. In Kai’s grip, Sehun came undone with a muffled cry and a bite upon Kai’s lip that left it bleeding with a cut.

“Shit,” Sehun gasped, watching Kai lick the tiny drop of blood from his lip with a sultry smirk. “I’m sorry,” Sehun murmured embarrassedly, coming down from his high. It felt as though someone had put a fire out in his head.

“Don’t be,” Kai said and retrieved his hand from Sehun’s boxers, now stained with his come. It did not seem to disgust Kai as much as it mortified Sehun.

“I’ll get you some tissues,” Sehun grunted and tried to sit up to reach the bedside drawers.

Kai stopped him, grabbing hold of his wrist. “Not yet,” he whispered, guiding Sehun’s hand to his lower abdomen. Sehun’s eyes narrowed with lust as he splayed his hand over Kai’s abs. “Touch me.”

Sehun licked his lips and gulped hard. He did not want to just touch Kai. He wanted to taste him in his mouth and swallow him whole. But given the unfortunate condition he was in, he had to compromise.

It was not bad. Not bad at all. He watched Kai lose all of his composure as Sehun stroked his cock in his hand. Withdrawing it momentarily, he spat on his fingers to lubricate them before wrapping them around Kai’s erection again.

“Fuck,” Kai gasped under his breath, a hand flying to grip Sehun’s hipbone as he began to thrust into Sehun’s hand. His breathing quickened, his breaths short and laboured, his mouth agape and lips glistening with saliva. It was a glorious sight to behold, and it quickly hardened Sehun again.

Noticing the hardness that was prodding against his arm, Kai moved his hand from Sehun’s hip to his cock once more and fisted it around the aching member. He stroked Sehun in sync with the thrusts of Sehun’s hand around his own cock. With an erotic choreography that took Sehun to madness, they moaned into each other’s mouths, tongues fighting for control.

Grabbing the hem of Sehun’s shirt with his free hand, Kai pushed it up and smashed his mouth onto one of Sehun’s pebbled hard nipple to suck it, his tongue skilfully circling around it.

When they both reached their climaxes, almost concurrently, the room filled with the obscene sound of their raspy breaths and moans. They stilled for a moment to catch their breaths, eyes boring into one another. Then Kai chuckled breathlessly, bringing a hand to cup Sehun’s cheek and kiss him full on the mouth.

“That was… amazing,” he panted against Sehun’s tongue before pulling back to look lovingly into Sehun’s eyes again.

“Do you not hate me?” Sehun asked.

Kai blinked with confusion and shock. “What? Why would you ask that… especially after what we had _just_ done?”

Sehun pursed his lips for a second, glancing over to the window through which the darkness of the evening surged in. “You are here because of me… My mother… killed yours. She ruined your… life. Ren… Everything. I don’t know why you’d do all this for me.”

Kai took hold of his jaw and forced their eyes to meet. “Because I love you. Sehun, you’re willing to go through so much trouble just to be with me, too. Do you think I’m so heartless that I can’t see how much _you_ love me?”

“Still,” Sehun muttered, frowning. “You could have chosen… not to help me. Grace had let you go. You shouldn’t have come back for me.”

Kai sat up. “This is ridiculous,” he said. “I want you, Sehun. All right? You’re… all that I have left.”

Sehun looked away. “You were doing fine even without me.”

Kai’s eyebrows furrowed. “Why are you doing this now?”

“I’m not doing anything.”

Silence fell between them.

Kai then heaved a sigh. “I should let you sleep. It’s… getting late.”

“Where are you sleeping?” Sehun asked.

Kai got off the bed and zipped up his jeans. “Grace gave me a room.”

“She did?” Sehun’s frown deepened.

“In her quarters.”

“Oh.”

Kai rubbed the back of his neck. “You should get better first, Sehun. Before we can do anything. I’m gonna try to find out who those attackers were meanwhile.”

Sehun did not say anything more. Kai, with a heavy breath, bent forward and placed a kiss on Sehun’s forehead.

“Good night.”


End file.
